Hi, I got into arylie a couple of months back and have only watched the arylie episodes and have been a silent reader for a while. I did initially start watching imlie but found the romantification of the adilie relationship, given the power dynamic between the two, too disturbing so stopped.
I have watched some of Guls other shows in the past, my comfort and favourite one being Qubool Hai (KSG episodes only) and therefore in my imagination asya got married and was not traumatised by the crap that was served up by Gul after he left. And I plan to do the same with imlie, but today I just need to vent.
This week I restarted watching qh again and I can't help but compare imlie with qh - the complex cross generational relationships, the well developed side characters, so many social issues were raised not as just as random episode but consistently, the genuinely sinister villain (badi b not tranveer she was just as pathetic as mc, actually I think mc is just badly written and comically executed so she's just pitiful now), the only thing even remotely comparable is the main couple chemistry. Probably because in my view they are only non toxic relationships that Gul has ever romanticised, the irony being that both couples are to be killed off by the most toxic characters. Gul obviously only believes toxic couples can survive in the world that she creates.
As much I respect Gul for her ability to create engaging characters and starting plots for love stories, I feel she really is stuck in a rut and it's getting shallower with each show. I watched one episode of her new web show and I could not believe how infantile the dialogues were. For imlie the PH had long stopped investing in any creativity in terms story or characters, which can be seen even in the clichéd and repetitive plot for season 2. We don't even know how many kids badi ma has or why she's left her husband for 5.5 years? Mamiji ipk1 was equally awful to the bahus, but she had the depth of character to genuinely to care about Arnav and Anjali and had her own personality, life and traits. Narmada started as a cute supportive loving progressive mum, got flipped for the most ridiculous plot point and then now is just generic ITV mum who has nothing to do or say, Asad-Dilshad bond was beautiful, strong and unique even when they argued passionately about Rashid.
Given how basic the plot is for season 2 I really don't understand what the point of rushing the arylie story was, we literally jumped from plot point to plot point without even any nominal effort to pace the narrative to settle the story, the new characters and explore them a bit and develop interesting side plots.
As far I am concerned Gul and her team have once again failed to tell a sustainable story of a couple in love post 300 episodes especially given the potential they had at their disposal this time, it can be argued Barun and KSG leaving forced Guls hand in ipk and qh, but here I really don't think that was the case, she clearly just lacks the creativity to tell a story about a couple in love. So now I'm kind of relieved that they are both leaving before their characters get completely butchered with non sensical tracks as in ipk1.I'm so glad that sumbul is also leaving the show, how many times was she suppose to portray fighting her sister over a man?
All I want now for arylie is that we get a logical, sensitive and beautiful reconcilation, and some happy episodes before they get killed off, so when I rewatch the arylie story episodes I can stop in the happy phase and pretend that they got the happy ending they deserved. My final scene - as it's supposed to Imlies story and Aryan initially forced the marriage to ensure she pursued her dreams I want imlie to become a well respected TV reporter, win a prestigious award for her efforts with Aryan applauding her proudly in the crowd.
Thanks for reading but as I said I needed to rant today!