Did the Maryada creatives change the story?

But from yesterday's episode, it becomes clear that even though she was subject to severe molestation, the physical act of rape did not happen (Thank God for that, btw!)

Molestation, however gross and nightmarish it might be, is less in comparison to the horror of going through a rape. Priya's reaction in the beginning to being touched by Aditya indicated that she had a strong fear of a man touching her...something which most rape victims experience...for a long period of time! A woman who has gone through molestation will also be affected, but not as deeply as a victim of rape! And Priya was shown to be deeply affected in the beginning few episodes...so much so that she tried to kill herself multiple times! This is also something that happens mostly to rape victims, who feel that a doom has come upon them and now nothing can erase what happened!

The first time Priya attempted suicide in the train was because she kept thinking about the train incident taht happened with her...and not the fact that the world ostracized her as a prostitute...it wasn't even mentioned till then! So it was shown to the audience that Priya wanted to end her life because she is not able to come to terms with what happened with her! Molestation victims rarely attempt to take their lives...infact, if anything, they value life more, since they have had a narrow escape...but rape victims are the one who feel that they have lost everything and hence have no point in living! Exactly what Priya was shown going through!

I got a feeling that the creatives decided to change the storyline after getting a feel of Adi and Priya's popularity and how much the audience related to Maryada through them, rather than the other characters (all of whom are equally good)

Another give away was that the earlier flashbacks show Priya being handcuffed and pushed on the floor of the train compartment by a man who is dressed in a Police Officer's Uniform, but the SSP was in his civil clothes when the molestation scene happened and Priya did not have any handcuffs in her arms! Did the creatives shoot two different scenes???😕

Maryada, whatevet its initial storyline or marketing strategy might have been, is now primarily a love story between Aditya and Priya...as evident by the promo's which unfailingly show only these two!

Did the creatives realize that by showing Priya as a rape victim, that too at the hands of the hero's father, would be too bitter and dark for the audience? And most importantly, spoil the love story between Aditya and Priya? Cheesy, sexist and idiotic as it might sound, most of our audience wishes to see the heroine or the central protogonist as this 'untouched' girl whose body and soul are only for the hero and no one else! 😕 The creatives might want to show some light-hearted romance between Adi and Priya, post-marriage, and it would be difficult to show a girl like Priya reacting to Adi's advances, had she gone through rape...she would be too scared and too broken for anything of that sort...but now because nothing drastic happened, Priya can shown to be physically attracted towards Aditya.

So my theory is that to capitalize on the chemistry between Aditya and Priya and also to give more tenderness and romance to their love story, the creatives changed the rape into an attempted rape.....showing Priya to have gone through a nightmare, but at the same time coming out of it untarnished!

If this is really the case, I think its plain silly! Aditya's love for Priya is beyond physical...they connected on an emotional level...he did not fall for her beauty or charm...Priya is shown to be too plain looking and cold natured for an extrovert like Aditya to fall in love with and she is too pre-occupied with her own pain to pay any attention to Adtiya's good looks and charm! They fell in love because of something else...because he could feel her pain and wanted to remove it and she could sense his earnestness in wanting to do so!

Hence even if the creatives had shown Priya as a victim of rape, it would not have affected her love story with Aditya! Infact, it would have given more depth and seriousness to their relationship...by showing that Aditya does not mind if he was not the first man in her life, in the literal sense, but happy that he was the first man she truly loved!

Oh, but in anycase, its also a relief that Priya wasn't raped! Too much darkness and reality for a daily show is not good!😕

the fact that Adi's father molested Priya was too much for me to digest initially, but atleast they only modified the story a bit and not changed it completely!! It interesting to see that slowly we do get to see serials (Geet / Maryada) where the 'heroine' is not untouched which is closer to reality!!

the big problem with Indian soaps is the audience, we all love to see more drama / romance than bitter truths of life!😒

But...even molestation leaves scars...I know it is not as "bad" as rape, but it leaves the same scar on your psyche. Trust me, I work in a counselling centre. When you are molested, you don't think "oh wow, i'm going to live my life now because i just managed to save myself"...no, you feel crap about yourself and your self esteem goes off south and self degradation shoots up.
Add to that, the stupid society, so no wonder she was losing courage for a while.

Priya is enacting the part with aplomb! Of course you have to also "put on a show for tv", but she's doing it quite realisticly.

And about the "untouched" thing...yeah...I agree, the main lead has to be pure. However, slowly things are changing, like an above user pointed out, Geet is also another show where the chick is shown to be pregnant but the main lead accepts her regardless.

Maybe the creatives did change their mind...OR maybe they showed that in the previous flashbacks to capture the audience's attention. I think it was more of an attention grabbing strategy than anything else.

Regardless, I would like to see a more realistic romance between the couple...it's been quite realistic so far and there's a certain magic in it

Loved your analysis....I thought so too...

After reading your analysis I thought probably Priya isn't telling him the whole truth.... may be b/c she feels Adi won't like it and won't accept her...

I know she wants to clear about what happened to her but probably she's still hiding it....

who knows?

What you said can also be correct!!!

The earlier flashback shows Priya dressed in salwar kameez with handcuffs in her hands and being pushed on the floor of the train compartment, by a guy who is wearing a police officer's uniform!

Is it possible, that the creatives have not disclosed Priya's story entirely? Did she get arrested by the police on the day of her Marriage and Brahmanand took her forcibly to the train compartment and raped her, in order to avenge her complaint against him?

But if that was the case, then Priya would have mentioned this in the letter! I don't think she is the kinds who would hide anything from Aditya, especially, when she has decided to disclose everything else to him. Also, if you noticed, Priya talks about not knowing the Police Officer's name or designation because he was not in his Uniform...that means, Priya never saw Brahmanand after that attempted rape in the train. Besides, she is shown to go ahead with the wedding with Amar...if Priya was indeed raped, she would never have the courage or the will to get married! What really broke her spirit more than the attempted rape and charges of prostitution was Amar's breaking-up their relationship without as much as a word to her.

So all in all, I think the creatives did change the story from a rape case to molestation and harassment!

Bang on, loved reading what you wrote, and agree with most of it.👏👍🏼

I mentioned in my post elsewhere that teh Priya track for me is loosely written.

I am not saying that I am not liking the serial.

No ....its indeed far better than the Maaji-Sajanji fare on television.

But somewhere in the scheme of things they seem to be influenced more by the Priya-Adi pairing than by anything else.

For if you ask me, then the chemistry between all actors is really good......not just Priya and Adi.