Posted:
@Tanyaz
Sindoor and mangalsutra are social signs of a Hindu woman's married status. They have cultural / religious / romantic relevance, but in point of fact neither the sindoor nor the mangalsutra gives a woman any legal rights over the man who has put them on her. Particularly if he is already legally married to someone else. We know that Manav and Archana had a civil marriage too, which Tarun attended with them. (Where/who was the second witness?) Civil marriages in India are completed under the Special Marriage Act. This means that the rules of the civil marriage supercede other rules. By applying to marry under the Act, both parties agree to abide by legal rather than social/religious rules. So the law is certainly on Archana's side. But of course the creatives will cater to every retrograde/orthodox/misogynist idea of female subservience and therefore won't ever show her invoking the law to reclaim her rights as Manav's legal wife. In any case since both she and Manav are high school dropouts, the creatives have the perfect excuse to make them "ignorant", she of her legal rights over him, and he of his legal responsibilities towards her. If this is a story about selflessness it's also a story about cluelessness, unfortunately. They're both good people, but hopelessly unaware of a whole lot of crucial facts. Perhaps true selflessness is only possible in such states of Edenic ignorance?
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