@First love: Ooyeee! Yuppp the romantic little girl in me absolutely and most definitely agrees with you!!
I've always been rather amused by the fact that most unwillingly, Phulwa ended up married to the person she fell in love with. Perhaps not in spirit then, but there was no doubt it would show up one day.As for Aarti, I've never really though Abhay loved her the way the poor girl did. His mind was always on Thakur, and eventually he screamed at her too when she spoke against him. The way he told her he hoped her love never became an obstacle in his path...you couldn't say that unless the hatred in you was so much greater than love. So yeah, I completely agree with you that I don't think he truly loved her in that sense.While Abhay's starting to fall in love with her, there's no doubt the happiest thing would be if he admitted his love for her as Shatru - because she truly fell in love with Shatru and it'd be so sweet if he loved her back:)In a certain sense I've always thought she'll need to fall in love with Abhay again, because in essence it's like a totally different person. And hopefully this time he'll fall in love with her first:)
@Bold: You know I had completely forgotten about that, but now that you mention it, I remember when I heard him say that the first time, I was like there is no way Abhay can ever love Aarti fully, because he will always place the Thakur and his sense of duty over her and that's not what loving someone unconditionally is about.
But the beauty of this statement is how it reflects the Abhay we know today and his feelings for Phulwa. For the first time ever, he put Phulwa above both his duty and his father. For a guy that takes his dad's words as law, for him to say to him that 'ilzaam to Phulwa per bhi sabit nahin hua tha na baba' my god that left me stunned! He knows where the Thakur stands when it comes to Phulwa, and yet he took her side over his, he supported her, and is starting to show that she is slowly becoming the only person he can trust!
When he was talking to her after they declared her dead, the one line that stood out most to me is when he said 'agar tum humein chor kar chali gaayein to hamara damaan to bilkul khali ho jaaye ga'...just goes on to show that it's Phulwa not the Thakur who Abhay considers to be his in every sense of the world, because if she's not there, then he doesn't have anything left.
He has already made Phulwa his highest priority, and he is willing to overlook anything if it means keeping her safe. Like he said to the goons, he has made up his mind that he will destroy anyone and anything that decides to come between him and Phulwa.
This is not even close to the love he felt for Aarti, yes, he had feelings for her, but he wasn't willing to put her above and beyond everything in his life, with her his priorities were different, but with Phulwa, well, she is her priority!