Ani choosing Jhanak is more than just choosing her. It’s acknowledging that all along, he has been making decisions and doing things concerning her, not out of humanity, but because he desires her in the way he shouldn’t. It’s acknowledging that he fell for her despite having a fiancee, that his moral compass isn’t infallible and it’s not even good enough, that his moral compass is actually wretched, and that his whole life is catered to catering to the title of the Bose heir who is untouched by his family’s vileness, the voice of reason, the sheep among wolves. Choosing Jhanak means that he failed even his own expectations to watch out for himself because Ani Bose who loves himself more than anything else in this world actually went to fall for a woman that is not guaranteed to love him back, and thus leave him vulnerable. Choosing Jhanak means that he has to acknowledge that he made a wrong decision with Arshi. Ani cannot handle that he is a person with flesh and blood and so he thinks that if arshi acts within boundaries, he will still be comfortable enough to not venture out and face himself. Ani hypocritically doesn’t have high expectations for the moral compass of others around him. He is the standard for that, so it’s okay to be a notch lower. Those that are way higher than him don’t have the power to even be acknowledged. His mid-tier compass clothed in first position will do. His mid-tier compass that keeps getting lower since Jhanak will do. But what is happening now is that Arshi is literally going under the ground. Ani is shocked and too uncomfortable. And at the same time, his standards for Arshi concerning Jhanak are also increasing, since he is in love with Jhanak. So, the range of what he can tolerate keeps narrowing. Whatever process that Ani gets to say ‘yes, I love Jhanak’, however that goes, means that Ani has confronted himself; he is that intelligent. Summarily, Ani is such a character that choosing Jhanak OR his image isn’t a thing. It just doesn’t exist. Ani knows he will loose something for Jhanak but everything that Ani will lose for her is internal. It’s his self-image, his character, his perception. Among things I mentioned that Ani will have to confront for Jhanak, I never mentioned things like his status or respect or the usual ML problem. Yes, perhaps with external pressure, it can become a problem for Ani at work or his family’s status for falling for Jhanak and leaving Arshi. But that is only by external pressure. On his own, Ani has never needed to cater to others. He only caters to himself. That’s why he isn’t with Arshi still because of ‘family pressure’, he is with her because he pressures himself to do so. So, when he acknowledges his feelings for Jhanak, at that moment, a lot of things are snapping inside of him, the confrontation is happening at that single moment inside him, and it’s ends with Ani doing something. For instance, he could decide to break things off with Arshi and woo Jhanak, or he could decide for example, that Jhanak is too good for him and his family and is better off elsewhere. Whatever he chooses, it’s as an internal decision, not an external one caused by society or family or status. We can see that in how Ani never really places importance on Jhanak’s status like others. He doesn’t see it as some permanent thing that cannot change. So while Ani keeps his external image clean by default, Ani’s major battles are all internal because he caters to himself and decisions more than others. Ani deciding to woo Jhanak and go for her would be such a craze because he is going to go all out to do it. Sure, his image can be dented a bit, but can Ani with the lies really be unprepared not to fix things? Ani is very independent and quite confident of everything in his life. I don’t think his external image vs. Jhanak will be a conflict for him. That’s a problem for Shubho types, not Ani.
Udne Ki Aasha
Pushpa Impossible
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