The Maryada Purshotom syndrome of ITV - Page 2

Originally posted by: lovereading14

I have seen so many clips of Malini from the earlier tracks and my god are these two different people. From having self respect, confidence and a literal heart of gold how far was she ruined?

I thought Malini was a little too good to be true kind of character from what I heard. I will admit that your post made me go watch the episode and I see a woman independent and strong. I see the woman that was a professor in a college with a stable mind and charming smile.

Its heart breaking when I see the representation she is today (from the start of ASR's track)

She was not meant to be ruined to this extent if we are to see the original. But she was because when the cheating was outed there was overwhelming amounts of sympathy from the audience for Malini. Makers had no way out but to ruin her.

In the original bangla version she actually moves on, falls for an advocate, marries him and has a kid. her arc was one of the most loved ones. The romance/ chemistry with the second husband was infact way better than the leads of the show. So intense and mature. Why they deviated from that script I have no idea. That show was the longest running popular show then.

One of the reasons why I was invested in the show with Aryan's entry is because I never saw Aditya-Imlie as the end game (this is before even Aryan came on screen).

Aditya-Imlie had a lot of problematic tropes going on. There was evident grooming and Aditya himself was always an interesting antagonist in my eyes because he felt he was right and he often did things where he could justify himself or others could praise him. It is the perfect ingredients for a perfect villain tbh.

So when he turned into a darker character - flipping between the sisters as convenient - that's when I became hooked into the show. Because I loved the way Imlie's grooming and naivety was breaking as she was now forced to see Aditya in a different lens. The slow realization of what he truly is was the high point for me.

Aryan truly came in as the breath of fresh air and I loved it that he didn't appear as a potential love interest but someone who has his own backstory with Aditya - thus the unintended kinship he forms with Imlie on seeing her be blindsided in this relationship with Aditya and help her find her two feet just made this show amazing to watch.

And I absolutely LOVE what you wrote about Malini. They completely butchered her character only to justify Aditya because to be very honest, she was the only one who had it worst!

Originally posted by: Wanderbug

Again, the blame is being put on another female character. Why not think that Imlie was as much of a victim as Malini? In my opinion the blame lies only at Aditya's foot. Aditya is the more mature , world weary, so called "wasoolon wala honest journalist". He is such a gem that he couldn't make up his mind between two women, never could stand wholly behind either. The makers didn't turn Malini evil to make Imlie the Goddess. But because they needed to justify Imlie's devotion to her marriage, sanskaar, parivar basically to be "sarvagun sampan bahu" for Tripathi's and their son.

They continue to do this even now when Malini is out of the equation. Plus now they will add Rathore's in equation. so instead of being bahu to one family she will now be sarvgun sampan bahu for two clans. Imlie still doesn't think without being influenced by a male voice, be it Aditya or Aryaan. Just like the Goddess Sita Imlie is such a bhakt of. Sita maiyya's whole life was spent being either consort, captive or cast off of the men in her life. People forget the she was a strong willed woman who was an opinionated daughter, noble queen , strong adversary to Ravan and a single mother of rambunctious twin boys in a jungle. (if nothing else, only the last feat itself deserves 2 aarti a day for Sita maiyya in my opinion). Ram would not have been called Maryada Purshovttam if it wasn't for Sita's strong devotion and dignity in face of her bondage.

Makers are still trying to create the same "Perfect man" in Aryaan. Making us viewers think that Imlie needs to prove herself to be by his side. She needs to save his family and him from evil aunties, later from evil men and evil ex-GFs. Invariably , some other female character would come in to make Imlie battle for her rights to be with her all powerful, devoted, 1 in a million husband.

If u look at the fandoms for all ITV shows, one thing u will find in common. The shows are built around female characters wanting to set examples in society, them doing most of the heroics but the fans will be more ga-ga over the male leads. Remember when Mihir Virani died? or popularity of Mr.Bajaj or popularity of Asad Ahmad khan or previous ASR "Arnav singh Raizada". Even Anupama needs a Anuj in her life to finally move on (atleast the bengali version was like that..all her miseries were solved by anuj's money)

Its because Makers make the male characters to be so grand and all powerful, and nothing is their fault. Its all the women in their lives that are evil and they need protection.

Ah I'm worried about Aryan being labelled as the 'perfect man' for realizing his mistakes. He's finally being normal! Not perfect! He's being the character we all fell in love with.

I don't think IPK was ever built around Khushi - it was very much Arnav's story for a change, but yes I absolutely see your point of female characters seeing a necessary change only when the new lead is in picture.

Which is why tbh I'm happy Gashmeer quit - otherwise Imlie would've never come to a point of breaking her marriage and realizing she's had enough there (they would've made Aditya and Imlie endgame and ruined Malini even further, if possible).

And tbh again, to defend the perfect in law sanskaar and all, we're having that at the cost of Imlie's character growth. I hope they do write Imlie beyond her qualities of being an amazing 'bahu'.

I think the problem with much of what is shown on ITV is that we don't do nuances. Either people are too good and some sort of mahaan self-sacrificial saint or really evil. There are no in-between. However, most people are not in either extremes. They are simply human which means they have flaws. Even villain characters can have nuances, can feel hurt, can be human -- however many dramas are unwilling to go there maybe because they either think the audience will reject the leads or they are not willing to write the kind of writing that would require.

However, I see it as a mistake because ITV thrives on long, long, long series -- especially when it comes to family and squabbles, a drama can really thrive when they show both the good and the bad. However, when you show a very simplistic good vs bad, then eventually the track has to end because the battle has to be decided in favour of the good. Then the question what next and a drama can lose much of the audience who no longer care.

Coming back to the theme of the post -- it would have been more interesting if they had added nuances to the devolution of Mailini -- that someone who loved too much could not let go and you see her increasing frustration and more self-harm. They could have shown the dark side of love -- while many think love is pure and good, the truth is many crimes are committed in the name of love as well.

Rather than her simply become evil, they should have had her introspect and wonder if her love for Aditya was worth it at all at various points. That would have packed a punch - they could have shown her wondering why she is unable to let go of this man who doesn't reciprocate her feelings.

She simply disappears to jail and we don't see her. If we had a confrontation scene where she tells Aditya off and said loving him was the biggest mistake of her life -- that would have come full circle. See, so many angles they could take even if they had to make Mailini evil -- they could still show her as entirely human. That would have given them some extra 100-200 eps. 🤷

P.S ~ should qualify that my impression of Mailini is only based on the episodes I saw which is from Aryan's entry

I don't enjoy most of ITV shows, especially Hindi, just because everything starts with a strong/fierce/ambitious/chirpy/happy FL, brings in a situation, where FL will be compelled to get married against ML, due to whatever reasons, and gets into a new family, where it is shown like now the whole responsibility of getting adjusted and becoming a sanskaari bahu is only her responsibility and others are there to make her life more difficult. FL will be shown as a sacrificial lamb, to do all things goes to any extent to save family and ML, while others just enjoy watching it and taunting her mostly. In the process, they make her believe that since you are married, you are supposed to fall in love with your husband, who meanwhile will be wandering outside marriage, due to whatever reason(triangles are highly essential for drama). The onus of bringing back the wandering ML back to marriage lies solely on FL (may be in real life also Indian society works this way). Even if there is a divorce, real or fake, onus of holding the family together lies with FL. Any distress in the family, she will be called for and obviously she saves them.

In the process, FL looses her core character and ends up weak, sacrificial, doormat type, with no self respect, and stuck in a relation willingly, loosing her soul, ambitions and career.

I furthermore hate how domestic violence is romanticised and brushed off like nothing has happened. The worst thing is how they portray PL (female), as if their only purpose of life is to get into life of ML, by hook or crook. They degrade female PL to any extent.

In Imlie also, Malini was one of the best and sweet female character, who is also equally victim to the forced marriage of Aditya and Imlie, on top of that she was not told truth before her marriage to Aditya. She was degraded to level of a real villain, but no one bothered about her pain. I feel equally sad for Imlie and Malini

With the introduction of ASR, I hope they will deviate from regular family drama, and show the real progression of Imlie, professionally, the dream which ASR saw for her holding award comes true. Lets hope it will be a different story after marriage track

Originally posted by: Wanderbug

But from a story perspective the most wronged character in the show is Malini. Wronged by her parents, sister, husband, in laws and even her makers. Go figure!

I do almost agree with this point of yours. Not 100% because, I have more sympathy for Imlie and I would like to give her some more time to realise her faults, considering her age, they way she had been conditioned and how much she had been craving for a family. But yes...Malini for me is a stronger character than the spineless character of Aditya. She definitely had been a manipulative and selfish lady. The destructive part of her I would forget because of 2reasons - firstly because the makers had to go this way to get sympathy for their titular character Imlie and secondly, her one dialogue in one of the Adini marriage episodes is what made me feel so bad for her. She says to her mother 'Mujhe maloom hai ki mein meri usuloon ke khilaf ye sab kar rahi hoon'. She had that realisation of how wrong she is....something which till date could not be seen in the character of Aditya, to whom he is one who is always right and hence feels like he can play with the lives of Imlie and Malini. In real life, such a person will be called a pathetic character.

Oh God, thank you so much for this. I have had enough of careful grooming and moulding viewed as one true love.

I always felt like Aditya was that older guy whom as young adults we've been asked to stay away from. The attractive final year to a first year girl. You know, older man, accomplished, experienced but hella toxic and manipulative. Not the healthiest of relationships.

The idea that Aditya is her one true love is very hypocritical. The man double-timed women. And I'm glad the makers thought of a new ML for whatsoever reason because an endgame with Aditya would be glorifying everything that is wrong with toxic masculinity. Had they gone that way, they would've done what the society does every other day. Making women stay back in toxic relationships in the name of few good moments.

Aryan, boy, is he well thought out character. He's flawed in his own ways and I just hope they maintain the character arc. And what a phenomenal actor Fahmaan Khan is. Not to mention handsome.

Thank you for this tag, Pooja🤗, otherwise I would have missed out on this gem👍🏼 I was hiding under a rock and doing my work for the past week.

Thanks my friend, for this post, balm on a burning heart❤️. I was a Malini sympathizer and watched a few episodes in the beginning. When they turned Malini into somebody she isn't.😭 I gave up. Now, back for ASR❤️.

To me, Malini was a very relatable character, educated, grounded, sensitive, conscientious , just and a beautiful young lady. She was the child who acted as a glue in between her feuding parents, like the quintessential families we see around us. Yes, because of this, she was insecure, as she probably constantly walked on egg shells in her family. She wanted a secure life for herself. She therefore spent about a 1/3rd of her life in company of the patrakaar, hopefully vetted their relationship completely before they took the plunge into matrimony. How does it feel to be stabbed in the heart by the very same partner and a young girl whom she taken under her wing? And then told by the mother that she birthed her as a tool to hold on to a cheating, adulterer father? To be looked down by the in-laws as an unwanted nuisance? Disparaged and preached by a 18 yr old half sister, that her relationship is all wrong, it is a mere zidd and that she should move on to other men/relationships? 😭 She is righteous young woman who cringed at knowing that she was sharing a room and bed with a " married guy" as the useless patrakaar referred to himself. She wanted to get out of the relationship ASAP. The cheating couple asked her to stay put in the relationship, till they could clean their house🤬 The dad asked her get the hell out and pave way for his other daughter as a way of assuaging his guilt. How does a woman in that situation supposed to react?

But once, they made her into a gooda who is intimately involved in terrorist activities, flesh trade, there is no reason to follow the show for me. They made her give up her job, so she can be the helpless, unwed mother reliant on the patrakaar❤️She is made an abuser of a drugged patrakaar. They degraded her in every way possible to gain sympathy for the " organic couple"

On the other hand, the Adi-Imlie alliance is viscerally nauseating for me.😵 I am not supposed to utter why on this forum, but it bordered on child xxxx. I used to FF all of their scenes. Unintentionally, my eyes fell on a scene where he was giving her a piggy back ride, I kid you not, I lost my lunch🤬.

Adi guy has really no essence as a person. Other than boasting as a " righteous patrakaar" who is doing "serious work" for the country, he looked down on everybody else. He is a very rhetorical character. If he is a serious patrakaar, he should have brought up the atrocity on a child to the fore, he wouldn't have committed a bigamy and wouldn't have ridiculed/humiliated a legal wife as a " aap patni nahin hain" because now he wanted a young, colorful and a more interesting wife🤬. He has no respect or concern for his parents, family or anybody else. I know I say this again and again, but for reference, look at Nishant's wedding and how he gets aggressive with Aparna. The body language of the actor was horrid, if you ask me. He is in fact more cordial with SK and Meethi than his own family. For him, he makes the choice and everybody should simply follow that, whether it was Malini, Imlie or his family. They buried this bigamy and cheating Malini into marrying an already married guy, and he talks as if he is a flag bearer of some societal injustice . That his family is against Imlie because she is from a poorer class. While this may be a part of their rejection, bigger question here is he committed a bigamy and cheated Malini. If he didn't get drawn to a young, interesting , more lively girl, he would have carried on with Malini😡He has no finer feelings for anybody but himself. The writers wanted us to see him as a " flawed everyday" guy who does mistakes. Which flawed guy gets to go scott-free like this guy does? A flawed guy who commits a crime ( bigamy ) would be clobbered, not respected and revered like this guy. Kya karein, humein flawed individuals nahin pasand🤢 That phrase ' humein wahi kiya jo humein sahi lagaa" is hated with a vengeance by me😡 This character disgusts me. 🤬

I had no love lost for Imlie. For your question, is it wrong for a young girl to be infatuated with a " husband figure". I have to answer no. But it is not just the infatuation, but Imlie would preach to everybody around. The moment she started preaching, my brain would shut down. The way that she expected Malini to buzz off from her life and patrakaar's life because now they are the " in-love couple" is 🤬 She called her relationship with patrakaar as some gift from Sita maiyaa and herself a delegate of Sita maiyaa. Constantly disparaged Malini's as zidd 👎🏼 It came across as when a husband finds himself fancying a young woman and tells her that she is the eternal love of his life, she jumps on that bandwagon and wages a war against a legal and a social wife and asks her to go away into the horizon🤬 She preached her belief about one marriage, one husband nonsense but expected Malini to go along into other relationships. Malini ke paas bhi kuch convictions hote hain na? It was horrible.

I don't care about buzz words thrown around, biswas and other nonsense Never understood what this biswas was about. Malini also had the biswas that her relationship wouldn't break, but then that was termed evil and zidd.

I gave her a lot of concessions after ASR's entry as she stopped preaching and has left the patrakaar guy. That guy deserves that. He can't play with both women at his will😡. I reconciled with her character as a very young girl, unexposed and is in a romantic love with the notion of " one marriage, one husband" etc. But, now she understands there is more to life than that.

Anyway, once I start about the initial story, I won't stop. I am forcing myself to stop now.🤔 I am not sure if I made much sense or just regurgitated what all I had to say😃

Originally posted by: mili9

But once, they made her into a gooda who is intimately involved in terrorist activities, flesh trade, there is no reason to follow the show for me. They made her give up her job, so she can be the helpless, unwed mother reliant on the patrakaar❤️She is made an abuser of a drugged patrakaar. They degraded her in every way possible to gain sympathy for the " organic couple"

This is why I am happy that I had watched my regional version of this show. Because, there Malini never gave up her job and she was not portrayed as a monster. Instead Malini's raw human emotions too were given equal SS and Adini with a kid while Imlie becomes a doctor was the endgame. I don't understand why Hindi GECs always have to run on EMAs. 🤦🏻‍♀️

P.S. Btw Mili, I am glad we met on this forum once again. Unlike Imlie, as part of breaking away the shackles from my past as an ITV viewer/fan, I have changed my username. So leaving it to you to guess who I am. 😆

Originally posted by: Enlightened21

This is why I am happy that I had watched my regional version of this show. Because, there Malini never gave up her job and she was not portrayed as a monster. Instead Malini's raw human emotions too were given equal SS and Adini with a kid while Imlie becomes a doctor was the endgame. I don't understand why Hindi GECs always have to run on EMAs. 🤦🏻‍♀️

P.S. Btw Mili, I am glad we met on this forum once again. Unlike Imlie, as part of breaking away the shackles from my past as an ITV viewer/fan, I have changed my username. So leaving it to you to guess who I am. 😆

Oh my Goodness ! We have met before? Now the curiosity is killing me. The analysis seems spot on ! Prani???? Please tell me yaar😲