Manik Malhotra - the one name that sparks off a flurry of emotions; fury, excitement, pity, and at times, love. But if you ask me what emotion this character evokes within me? It's that of curiosity first. And if there is one word I'd use to describe him it'd be 'grey'.
Grey in the sense that there is no one way or another. Grey in the sense that he is no angel or a demon. He's human. From the very inception of the show, where we're yet to meet this guy who is staring at the shooting star, he has been shown to not want anything more in life; not wish for anything else because he already got what he needed for his life to be complete - Dhruv, his buddy.
Manik has had a rough childhood. You can tell when you look at his interactions with his 'mother' - Nyonika. His father however, still remains a huge question mark. But all that questioning aside, when the broken child in Manik finds a vulnerable Dhruv, who is seconds away from slipping away, the mask of adulthood slips on. He takes care of Dhruv in a way that even his own mother cannot. He croons while strumming his guitar, takes Dhruv in his arms, and urges him to calm down when the latter is having one of his attacks. Dhruv, from that very fateful night, becomes his responsibility, the family that he never had. He unleashes his fury at any one who dares to mess with his family ('Bhai hai wo mera!' - yelled out, pure rage shimmering when he believes Nandini to be harassing Dhruv, and lets the worst in him out when he makes that disgusting concoction for her to drink).
When he finds other broken souls growing up, he takes them under his wing, becoming fast friends with them, creating a safe haven, a cocoon for all of them - a place where none of them have to be vulnerable anymore. These 4 souls, are ones that have had a broken home, no love, or maybe walls built around that no one but themselves are allowed to see.
Cabir has a secret that he cannot share with anyone - neither with his mother, who loves him to pieces, nor with his group of friends he has had since his school days. He carries around a burden, and hides behind a camera torturing other helpless souls, just so that the camera wouldn't be turned towards him one day. When he fumbles, lying all the time, having a fake' girlfriend just to make up for the fact that he's scared to let everyone know of the truth, Manik is the one who realises at first. Granted, he walks in on Cabir while he's having that conversation, but he knows that Cabir has more on his plate than he can have. So he makes it his mission to talk to the latter whenever he can. Whenever they are alone, Manik confronts Cabir, wanting the latter to be comfortable enough to share something..anything with him. And he does. Manik doesn't beat around the bush, he yells at Cabir, knowing that lies are what bother him, more than the truth ever will. He becomes Cabir's mirror, as the latter voices out, that he's gay.
The secret shocks Manik, to say the least, and yet, he's wholeheartedly accepting of his friend's sexual orientation. He doesn't judge - but what bothers him is the fact that he hadn't known something so major quite early on, the fact that Cabir had felt the need to be afraid. Manik needs the truth, and that too, in a straightforward manner.
Alya is someone who has been betrayed by her brother, and hasn't had a perfect home to go to at the end of the day either. She is someone who needs to portray her perfection to the world, putting a mask of glamour on, to hide her true self; her true self that craves for hot chocolate when she's down in the dumps, like everyone else out there; her true self that aches for comfort and normalcy - something that she had come to associate Manik with. She had been his steady girlfriend for about 7 years, and yet, in their interactions, you see the absence of trust, passion, and just something that 'clicks'. Manik and Alya have been so habituated with one another that a shred of change makes the latter panic. She freaks out when Nandini enters the picture and her boyfriend's attention has shifted. When she sends those goons after the new girl, in hopes to find her haven of normalcy, she loses Manik's trust in that very instant. The end result of him finding out, isn't pretty at all. He cares deeply for Alya, he trusts her with all he has, and yet, she tugs at the already fragile strings of the semblance of normalcy, semblance of relationship they had - because there wasn't anything more left to it. Manik needs trust, especially from the ones he considers family.
Mukti has never had the love from her parents, and needless to say, she looks for it elsewhere. When she finds it in Harshad, she loses all sense of discomfort, all sense of the comfort her friends provide. She and Manik are extremely similar in the respect of wanting love from others only because they've never had the chance to experience it in their childhoods. Which is why, more often than not, she ends up calling him or going to him when she needs comforting. And when Harshad cheats on her, she loses that spark. Mukti loses the sense of her real self, playing around, never letting anyone get close to her and for her, just like Alya, Fab5 provide comfort. Her four best friends were the ones who saved her after she fell. They're the ones who lifted her up and she'll be damned if she forgets that or lets anyone mess with her cocoon. When she spots even a single sign of change, she panics, just like Alya. However, she chooses to rely on anti-depressants, something that she has recently chucked away, thank heavens!
Alya ends up knocking on Manik's door when she finds out about Mukti's problem. And he gets rattled in the sense that he wants to go right over to his friend and knock some wisdom into her. If there is one thing he can't see, it's his friends in pain. He puts on the mask of being stronger than ever, and rushes to heal his broken friends - but the fact remains. He is still broken. And there is no one to heal him.
Manik is someone who has grown up taking care of others, trying to be the parent that he never had; trying to heal them, providing them with the comfort of having a family, having someone to talk to after a hard day. He's the one who makes all the decisions, decisions that he thinks prove to be in the best interest of everyone. And yet, everyone doesn't include himself. If it means that everyone else's broken soul, tortured spirit will be healed, and he doesn't need to think twice before making that judgement. He forgets that he is a teenager too, mainly because no one else sees him as one - no one has ever questioned him and asked whether the decision is in HIS best interest too - it's just expected of him to take charge, and make the right judgement call, anything else be damned. He's the mother hen' of the group, and that's the reason why he can't let himself be broken. He can't let anyone see him tortured, so he has a mask - a constant mask that is labelled as 'Monster'. He lets the demon within him shine through so clearly, so potent, that everyone knows not to mess with the mighty Malhotra. He knows, that if his mask were to slip, the consequences will be deadly, the cocoon built, shattered forever.
There's a shift in the atmosphere as Nandini enters the scene, however. She questions Manik. She doesn't back off, or rather, doesn't know when to. She punches him instead, not being afraid, because he tries to mess with her cocoon. Her world that comprises of her family, fireflies and own beliefs. She readily gives up her childhood to take care of her baby brother who cannot speak, and who has attacks that are similar to what Manik has grown up dealing with, with Dhruv. She has grown up parenting Rishabh in the same way that Manik has, with Dhruv. She would do anything for Rishabh, even if it means joining a university that seems like a hellhole'; she would agree to become friends with her nemesis, if it results in finding out answers about her brother's illness. However, where on one hand Manik chooses to let his darkness show, letting his aura be engulfed in the same, while having faith in light, Nandini represents everything that is light. She believs that darkness can only be battled with faith, and brightness - and therefore, she sees the best in everyone, she has a smile for everyone - everyone except for Manik.
She tells him that he has to earn her smile, and he does. He takes care of her brother when he is supposed to be playing with his band on stage. He lets the light within him shine through and she's grateful. She has had a peek in the world of Manik Malhotra and she is not going to back out, not before she brings out the best in him, not before she has her answers. So, she pursues him, telling him off for his ego, and his manners - and what she finds out, shakes her to the very core.
He tells her that he's better off being the Monster. That he doesn't want to be good. And that he shall 'always remain evil'. He is rattled when she asks too many questions. His world is titled on its axis when she smiles at him, telling him that she knows he's a good person. She sees cracks in his mask and he knows she won't stop before she unveils his true interior.
He shouts at her, makes rude comments, does whatever he can to ask her to stay away - for he is toxic, for he is too broken for anyone to deal with. But she manages to make her way into his heart anyway - with her innocence, kindness and unique beliefs that he didn't think were possible to have in today's date.
When he yells out that he had everything covered, the audience is stunned. They don't believe that a person with the darkest shade of grey can have the capacity to think about consequences, or other people. And yet, when he mentions stationing Dhruv at every single prank scene, only to save others - you see the real Manik Malhotra. The Manik who doesn't want to hurt anymore, the Manik who wants nothing to do with his mask anymore, and the Manik who needs to be healed. Dhruv, in essence, is the angel to Manik's demonic side - they're two sides of the same effin' coin! Dhruv has always been instructed by Manik to be on standby, lest anything were to go wrong - lest anyone to get hurt. He has always counted on Dhruv to be the saviour - counteracting with his Monster faade. And hence, the fury on his face is evident when he trips Nandini, and she bleeds from her forehead. His glance clearly states 'you were supposed to save her! She wasn't supposed to be hurt!' In the instances when Dhruv is missing from the scene - where the pranks aren't planned (case in point, Harshad's firecracker scene where Nandini falls into the pool and when she falls off the cliff), he doesn't need thinking twice before jumping in to save her.
Manik Malhotra is flawed. He hurts when she hurts. He hurts when he's making that sacrifice - you hear his silent screams, his eyes begging for someone, ANYONE to see through him. But the mask that he puts on is so strong, so malleable, that no one has the courage to peel through it - no one expects it of him. So he does what he is best at. He makes judgement calls that don't let his cocoon shatter. He heals broken souls. But the fact remains, that he's broken too. And there is no one to heal him.
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...and that's a wrap ladies and gents. *phew*. This show and its characters are taking over my life, no joke.
-Raina
