Why The Nefarious Nafratbaaz Actually Have Potential
(Mind aware, this is a long post!)
Yesterday we saw the return of the infamous Svetlana, and the formation of what the writers of the show so adorably coined nafratbaaaz'.
Let me just say, the last two episodes were so confusing. I honestly felt like I was watching Ishqbaaaz from the future; what with Annika clumsily using her feminine wiles to de-stress her husband (whose reciprocation made absolutely no sense), and the random entry of the villainous trio, Svetlana, Tia and Romi. About aforementioned group, I've read a multitude of posts hating, mocking, and essentially not taking them seriously.
When I watched yesterday's episode, I completely agreed with every single one of those posts, but then I got thinking.
Let's look at these three women separately.
Svetlana
When she was in the original episodes, I remember Svetlana being quite a fan favourite. There were posts about how extremely wicked she was, and how much potential she had to become a full-blown villain.
I actually just read a post that mentioned that Svetlana could give all of the women in Oberoi Mansion a run for their money in hotness, beauty and style and I'm slightly confused. Let's not go to hotness', because that doesn't seem like something any self-respecting woman would want to be known solely for. As for style, I completely agree - real stylish Svetlana, sleep with a married man, twice your age. Oh, and physical style? It's kind of obvious who's classier between Svetlana and the Oberoi women, what with her overtly modest saris, compared to what they wear, and how the conduct themselves.
My point is, I never really saw it. All I saw was yet another over-used character template, a secretary who slept with her boss to climb the corporate/social ladder. Originality at its peak.
What did Svetlana even do?
Making sultry faces at the camera, and (unsuccessfully) throwing her weight around Jhanvi, does not count. When contrasted with Jhanvi, her flaws are evidently seen. While Jhanvi is the picture of class and aristocracy (apart from the random drunk part which never got really addressed after the first twenty episodes), Svetlana is the opposite - merely being portrayed as the woman who seduced a rich, married man to inevitably rise the ranks. Whether she was really in love with Tej wasn't exactly explored, but their relationship didn't appear to be a worthwhile bond apart from the sex. He didn't seem very emotionally invested in her, and apart from slinking around the Oberoi Mansion from time to time, and being at his constant beck and call, neither did she.
Anyhow, one of the most supposedly intelligent feats of Svetlana was the leak of the after-sex tape where Tej announces that he's going to divorce Jhanvi for Svetlana. Can we just point out that it was Roop that was the one who did that? So I ask again, what has Svetlana done?
Nothing.
Thus, I maintain that Svetlana was a disappointment in the shape of an antagonist.
Tia
To think of Tia Kapoor as a worthwhile vamp, the not-so-subtle chameleon that had absolutely no consistent personality, is almost laughable. We originally encounter Tia to be a sweet, albeit unaware and nave, reiki-obsessed woman that is all but emotionally neglected by her rich businessman fiance, Shivaay Singh Oberoi. I don't know about anyone else, but I genuinely liked Tia in the early episodes. I almost felt sorry for her. Think about it, she's getting married to a man who shows absolutely no interest in her, who indulges in more conversation with his goddamn wedding planner than he does with her. Tia may be stupid, but she isn't blind - she can't have not seen how attracted Shivaay was to Annika. Meanwhile, she has one future brother-in-law who maintains polite disdain for her, while the other downright mocks her constantly. She shares her to-be husband with his whole family, desperately wants time alone with him, and yet stays composed, and accepting of the situation. She's shown to be so understanding and honeyed at the beginning, I think it's impossible not to feel bad for her. In fact, I think I appreciated her character even more because I was glad that they weren't going the overused vamp route - and I always internally hoped that Shivaay would pick Annika and all of her flaws, over Tia, and all of her overarching perfection.
And then we got some bullshit thrown in, in the name of character development. Tia snuck some random man into the mansion one night, and then, Robin, her brother, spoke up and asked her why she was getting married to Shivaay. That's when we got the hint that Tia, too, was getting forced into this marriage, and even though she was turning negative, I saw the justification behind her behaviour and felt bad for her.
Two weeks later, Tia is seen hugging a man who is not her fiance during Karwa Chauth. Suddenly, she's getting incessant calls from said man, and then she's desperately sneaking out to meet him. You know the rest of the story.
And then, Tia suddenly became a complete vamp.
Her taunts and evil manipulations were honestly not very impactful. All Tia has really managed to generate is a ton of annoyance from the viewers over legitimate fear, let alone respect. Like Svetlana, all Tia really does is smirk evilly at the camera, and whine about Annika to Shivaay - who even through all of this, gives everyone on earth more respect than he gives Tia.
Even as I rack my brain for something Tia has really achieved in all of her vampish glory, I can't think of anything really. Anything that remotely works for her is usually owing to her mother's input, so really, Tia hasn't exactly been the greatest villain either.
Romi
Last, and in my opinion, definitely the least, stands Romi. Similar to Tia, her personality changed quite rapidly through her portrayal on the show. Her premise, although quite clichd, made sense to me. She, like Tia and Ridhimma, was one of the foils to each of the Oberoi brother's counterparts. While Tia was the perfect socialite in comparison to Annika's middle-class ways, and Ridhimma was a morally righteous social activist contrasting against Ishaana's underhanded con-woman path, Romi was the hot', popular girl which was a stark divergence to Saumya's chubby physicality and her intelligent personality. Essentially, these women were the epitomes of what the Oberoi brothers would theoretically seek in their partners and thus make an impact, when each of the brothers fell in love with the wrong' woman, when their ideal was in front of them.
It was an acceptable track, but I wish that was all that they left it at.
Romi's purpose changed constantly. She came in as the hot' new girl, who ironically ended up being childhood friends with Saumya. Speaking of Saumya, she seemed to adore Romi in the earlier episodes, until she randomly started yapping about Romi's secret to Rudra, who obviously didn't listen.
I think the CVs were trying to peak our interest with Romi's secret that Saumya was so voraciously harbouring, but it didn't really achieve much. I honestly thought that Romi would turn out to be gay, and as contrived as that may be, it would throw in the most lowkey nayi soch' while maintaining believability. However, Romi turned out to be a sociopath who believed that she was a goddess. Then, she proceeded to maintain that she only wanted to marry Rudra because he was her true match, and resorted to attempting to kidnap him repeatedly to get him to marry her.
This was by far the most absurd track on the show, and when Romi left after the RumYa marriage, I thought that we would reach some element of normalcy on the show.
Anyhow, Romi wasn't evil, she was just...strange.
My point being that these three antagonists were underwhelming at best. Svetlana, Tia and Romi didn't even make more than a dent in the Oberois' lives, singularly. However, I think that together, the nefarious nafratbaaz may actually have potential.
Before going into my reasons though, quick disclaimer. Please don't look for any logic. Gul Khan and her CVs wouldn't know logic if it jumped up and down in their laps. Logically, the trio being sisters when we haven't gotten a single hint in the 164 episodes before, is completely ridiculous. The fact that three grown women, would devote their lives to trying to destroy one family's life in the strangest of ways, also doesn't really make sense. That being said, it could make for some good drama.
So, as we found out today, Svetlana, Tia and Romi are all Kapoor sisters. I've read some posts questioning this, and with good measure, but remember all, we have to use absolutely no logic! It's completely irrational to think that Tej doesn't look into the past of the woman he considered leaving his wife for, Shivaay doesn't know anything much about his fiance's family, and even though they are supposedly close childhood friends, up to the point where she knows about Romi's mania, Saumya has no knowledge about her family.
There's only one way that I can really justify this new revelation.
So imagine this; in the aftermath of Mr. Kapoor's death, the Kapoor's are completely destroyed. Maybe the Oberoi's took over their company, maybe they were already in corporate debt that the women in the family had no experience handling. Either way, the Kapoor's are financially and socially inept. Thus, Mrs, Kapoor makes a business decision - she can't physically afford to take care of all three daughters. So, she separates them; leaves them with relatives, drops them at an orphanage, and promises to take them back when the company is back on its feet. Maybe she takes Tia with her and moves to London, trusting Svetlana to be able to take care of the youngest. Maybe, she leaves Tia behind too, and takes her back years later, when she knows that she can use her against the Oberoi family. Meanwhile, Svetlana and Romi grow up separately (different families take them in?)- this is where the adoption really makes sense, because that way, Romi could have easily grown up near Saumya in a completely different family. This is further proved by the fact that we know that Mr. Kapoor is dead, so the man that Romi presents as her father is not her own. On the other hand, Kapoor Ltd. Is flourishing again, so Mrs, Kapoor's plan can know successfully be inputted with Tia, and the most idiotic business man of the century, Shivaay Singh Oberoi. Eventually, a hefty merger is drawn up alongside Shivaay and Tia's marriage, both business and personal. By then, she has to keep the other two daughters a secret, because the Oberoi family have already met Svetlana and Romi in different contexts, and aren't fond of either of them.
It's quite far-fetched, but the only thing that I can really think of to justify this track.
So now, the Kapoor's are going to wage war against the Oberoi's.
I actually don't mind this whole track, to be very honest. Ishqbaaaz has absolutely had no villain's, thus, the drama has been really kept to misunderstandings, repercussions and redemption, which is all well and good, but can get disastrously boring.
The Oberoi's are portrayed to have everything in theory - money, social status, respect, a flourishing corporate industry. However, they lack a lot too. The Oberoi family all love each other, no doubt, the only issue is that even in all of this love, lies a lot of manipulation, compromise, prejudice and personal morals. These weaknesses make them extremely susceptible.
On the other hand, these three sisters, embittered by the injustices that this family has thrown at them, are hungry for revenge. From what we heard in the last episode, they've been planning this for years now. More than Romi, I'm excited to see what Svetlana and Tia actually do. These two have apparently been using Tej and Shivaay respectively, to bring the whole family down. I would love to see exactly how they try to break the family, and I think that it would make for a fantastic plot if they played with the family member's to essentially make them turn on each other, of their own accord.
Svetlana, Tia and Romi all possess qualities that could make them worthwhile villains. Svetlana works closely with Tej, up to the point where she organises security for the family, which gives her access to a wealth of corporate and personal details that would be highly coveted. If you think about it, for Tej to have such unwavering faith in her actual business capabilities (in the early episodes, he remains quite resolute about her aptitude for her job), she genuinely must be good at what she does. Thus, Svetlana is most probably a fantastic researcher as well.
Tia, on the other hand, can be quite manipulative when she wants to be. Involving the media was an intelligent idea, because it hit Shivaay exactly where she wanted it to, on his sore spot, his reputation. Which leads me to think that she can actually be intelligent, but even more so than that, she appears to be sweet, and nave. Everyone apart from Shivaay and Annika pretty much think that she's absolutely brainless, and some even feel sorry for her. She could easily use this to her advantage. More than anything, Tia is the direct link between the sisters and Oberoi Mansion. Only her constant frequenting in and out of the house would make sense, which means that she would be privy to all that happened inside the house, as well as being one of the ways in which the attacks could play out. Maybe not as much as her sisters, but Romi, too, could be of use to this endeavour. Everyone who knows her closely' is under the impression that she is a self-obsessed maniac who they've all but gotten rid of. She disappeared for quite a while after RumYa's marriage, so its quite possible that they've been lulled into a false sense of security in her absence. Even more than that, Romi seems to have either blackmailed or forced her family' and her henchmen of being completely devoted to her - making them do her bidding would also be helpful in their fight.
Basically, altogether, these women could come at the Oberoi family like a hurricane.
With their mother also pulling strings through them, the Kapoor's have the potential to be fantastic antagonists. Speaking of said mother, is it just me, or does she seem the hungriest for vengeance? Out of all the Kapoor women, Tia is starting to look like the weakest link, because all she wants to really do is destroy Annika, while the others are out to ruin them all. Mrs. Kapoor, on the other hand, seems borderline psychopathic to me. I can't get the image of her twisting Tia's arm behind her back to elicit a part of her plan. I think that she'll only serve to fuel the fire between the Kapoor sisters, and make sure that all three stay dedicated to their respective pursuits.
I think that this trio will definitely have more of an impact that Roop and Gayatri ever did. While these three harbour the same hatred because it stems from a shared blow, Roop and Gayatri seemed way too motivated in their own stance to try to work together aptly. Maybe at one point in time, Roop and Gayatri could have been equally as tyrannical, but the writers pretty much ruined their own characters.
Which brings me to my last point; this whole post has been about the potential that this trio possesses. I say this, because as we have already seen from upcoming segments and current happenings on the show, I'm almost completely sure that having any such hope will be completely fruitless. Dressing up and marching into a hospital will six-inch heels on, chanting around a fire, throwing Annika into a freezer - these don't seem evil, they just seem downright stupid. I wish that they were shown to be more intelligent, to be more manipulative - to actually show us the Svetlana that they promised in the vanvaas promo.
We desperately need some actually drama on the show, because if I see anymore of Annika and Shivaay indulging in their forced marriage like it was a completely planned, love marriage while Saumya marches around the Oberoi Mansion constantly on the phone while Pinky is slinking around unhappily cursing Annika and Jhanvi rushing behind her to console her, and Daadi chanting about takkar ki ishqbaazi in the background, I will tear my hair out.
Here's to the nefarious nafratbaaaz, and the drama that they will hopefully bring!
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