@Shaavi: Thanks, and since the idea of the posts is to raise questions and doubts, I am happy to respond as best I can. 😊 I think Sona does well with short-term challenges (much like the Khatri issue), as long as the goal is clear before her. She kind of recedes into her shell when it comes to taking risks where the outcome is unknown, and as we know, she tends to make sense of all of this by writing herself into stories where she is the hero. When she takes a challenge, she sees herself as the underdog, destined to victory and when she chooses not to, sees herself as a martyr who used her strength for sacrifice.
That is what was so special to me about the benaam ristha that Dev and Sona had, from the time she found him at the farmhouse until Ishwari brought this request before her. For once in her life, she wasn't trying to write a story around her and Dev's interactions; she was just living in the moment. Dev made that possible by playing it cool, and being grateful for whatever Sona chose to give at that moment. That space did wonders for their intimacy. With this demand that she get Dev to agree for marriage, Ishwari and Asha both foisted a narrative each on Sona, and she chose to go with the safer option, because she doesn't have the strength to fight for her relationship with Dev yet.
Therefore, she is remarking the boundaries and exercising her haq as a friend -- in telling Dev that he simply must get married -- instead of her haq as his undefined love interest. It reminded me a lot of a scene from Friends where Rachel is pregnant with her and Ross' baby but they aren't together. She gets jealous when a woman flirts with Ross and tells him she doesn't want him dating. When he agrees immediately, she responds, "but I am being so unreasonable." Ross tells her that she is allowed to be. That is where Dev is now. According to him, Sona is allowed to be unreasonable, just as long as she is honest about it, but she is cornering herself into this either/or conundrum.
@Sweety: Dev has regained her trust in every way that she has allowed. She trusts him completely as Soha's father, and now as a friend. Otherwise, she wouldn't have come straight to him when Ishwari made her request and she was disturbed by the idea. The truth, though, is that although Sona loves Dev and enjoys being with him, she is still uncomfortable with the idea of remarriage and commitment. The proposal came from Ishwari *because* Dev is trying not to pressure her into something she isn't ready for, and is doing what he can to regain her trust from within the boundaries she has set. To expect Dev to keep pursuing her romantically when she has categorically refused him is to put him in a damned if you do/damned if you don't position.
And it's not like she doesn't know how he feels. He told her that he only considered remarriage when his mother suggested marrying her, he told his mother, point blank in front of Sona that he was not ready to get married, and he told her that he didn't want to give her place to anyone else. In fact, this is what she is running away from, so more such assertions from Dev would only cause her to react the way she did now. The way I see it, Dev didn't say yes to remarriage... he said yes to Sona's demand for his remarriage. He flipped her own game on her: you say you are helping my mother and convincing me to get married for my happiness? Well, I am going to get married, but only for your happiness. To me, that's what it signified when he turned that corny dosti dialogue on her: I'll do what you say, but I'm taking control of how the narrative is framed, because I am not just a character in your story. I have a story of my own.
@All: These new segments are so damn exciting! It reminded me of a sequence from one of my favourite films, Kuch Naa Kaho, when Aishwarya is supposed to find a bride for Abhisek but they end up helping an estranged couple and falling in love themselves. 😆
Fan Fictions
Anupamaa
