Originally posted by: sanfan
Great post as usual Asmi ❤️
I hope I can add one dimension to this take on Ani choosing Arshi as a comfort zone etc
I am tagging Priya as it is her question in the first place..
Ani’s falling in love with Jhanak was pretty gradual and which is why the position of Arshi as his partner was always a real possibility for him, at least very unconsciously in the beginning. For the longest time he has clearly compartmentalised his feelings as Pyaar and zimmedari… in fact today also the compartmentalisation is there… it’s another matter, what was pyaar before is zimmedari now and what is zimmedari is pyaar now..
slowly there was change in this dynamic in how he started viewing his zimmedari pyaar lens …in fact his realisation for his changed feelings for Jhanak in its full impact came about only much much later but even in that stage there was a resigned feeling of reconciliation that nothing much could come of it as perhaps they were meant to lead separate lives. ( this may have been due to Ani feeling that his love for Jhanak isn’t reciprocated by her) . So Arshi was firmly entrenched in the picture throughout that period. So leaving Arshi didn’t cross his mind until it was too late… we know the point it happened and while he could have still chosen to come clean with Arshi irrespective of Jhanak we know he isn’t wired that way and he will understand the full impact of his choices soon enough or perhaps the process has started.
Also through the entire period as Ani and Jhanak formed attachment, it was Jhanak who largely felt the force of the moral angle… Ani has been oblivious to it and so even when he accepted his feelings for Jhanak completely, and was even at the stage of telling Jhanak that he can no longer honour the promise to her to marry Arshi, ( that he wasn’t able to complete the convo is another thing) he was angry at Jhanak’s insistence on the promise as he never understood Jhanak’s fears about the havoc the relationship will bring to their lives. So he again went to Arshi this time out of spite.. not realising how all this could backfire badly. Asmi has described beautifully the way the force of our actions come to visit us.
In summation, if in art through a fictional tale, if I want to tell a story of two individuals who fall in love in a specific set of circumstances, as a writer what are kind of impediments can I put in the tale creatively in the tale before they ride into the sunset? Yes, it’s possible as individuals we are saying arre why are they not doing this, why are they not doing that but how much of it seems in line with characterisation is key… do I accept their motivation? Or do I understand why each is behaving in a certain way? Can I see how they are changing with more milestones ( sometimes good sometimes bad?
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