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Shivaay's behaviour towards Anika today was cruel, it was ruthless, I don't think it would be an exaggeration to call the last few minutes downright evil. We are all, without exception, disgusted by his behaviour. Shivaay pushed Anika around, he physically threatened her, he pushed her over, he threatened to strip her and force her into the wedding clothes himself. In the Precap he's going to emotionally crush her by pretending to blow up her younger brother...
To be honest I don't know why anyone is surprised because I personally thought him threatening to rape her in the pool was about on par with this, and pretending to blow up Sahil isn't really all that different to when he actually stole away Anika's home, livelihood and potential to adopt Sahil. I think we've just forgotten that SSO because of all the Billu Ji-ing we've seen in between.
But all of that we managed to excuse.
Today?
There is no excusing it. Nobody, not even those who think they can understand why SSO snapped in this manner is trying to excuse what he did.
And that's precisely where I see the positive.
It wasn't made to be romantic. Shivaay was nothing short of terrifying and Anika was nothing short of terrified. This kind of manhandling has always been made to appear romantic or passionate. "Tashan" (TrademarkGulKhan 😆) . But I didn't see any attempt to depict that today. Everything from Shivaay's expressions to Anika's reactions to their tones to their actions... nothing was romantic about it.
Shivaay's grip on Anika was vicious, his eyes looked half crazed, when he put his foot up on the bed beside her I swear I almost vomited in my mouth. Nakuul played it perfectly, lines which could have been so romantic "Mere naam ka mangalsutra pehnogi... Mere naam ka sindoor daalogi... Mere biwi banogi par..." were said with such vitriol that the juxtaposition of what he was saying with how he was saying it just made it even more terrifying. If it was jarring for us as viewers to watch, imagining how Anika must be feeling to be suddenly faced with this Rakshas where she had once seen a Rajkumar is nothing short of devastating.
Judging from the discussions between GK and her writer on Instagram, this almost certainly wasn't deliberate from the writers' side and it was supposed to be played as the standard "Shivaay is a desperate hero and can do anything for his family but he also loves Anika, his tashan is just overflowing"... so full credit actually goes to Nakuul for playing him this way. He played Shivaay perfectly. There was no remorse, no guilt, no regret shown for what he did to Anika. He did not allow the viewers the option of sympathising with Shivaay or excusing this kind of behaviour.
Sure, Shivaay may redeem himself in the future but for today, he was shown to be unapologetically the villain. Every villain thinks they're the hero of their own story and okay, I accept that what Shivaay has done was done out of rage and desperation. But for Anika, the victim and target of that unfiltered emotion? It was horrifying.
I thank the Lord that Nakuul and Surbhi drew on all of that without trying to make any of it romantic, without trying to depict any positive emotions in fact. Just raw rage and fear respectively.
That's what's new. This show really does have some fantastic actors and actresses and after today, I'm going to try to breathe easy because even if the script objectively makes me sick, the actors provide another quite solid filter of protection before I'm forced to try and stomach it.
I'm trusting you NaRbhi. Don't let me down 😆
Arjun
Anupamaa
