I get that this is getting tedious. And I promise I will ignore the Shaad/Jannat angle of the pak track totally from now on.
However I had this written down a week ago and I've been coming to terms with this whole issue and as much as it upsets me, I realize that my profession as a social worker is making me too sensitive to this. STILL what the cvs are doing here is highly irresponsible and very offensive to women/girls who had gone through this type of situation so I am going to lay down a few things that need to be said clearly...
First of all forget Sanam, Ahil and Sahil...forget Q2 altogether before reading further... because this is not about the over all story of Q3 at all.
Let's just see the pak track as a story between Shaad and Jannat... Jannt a girl who has no memories, and we know nothing about her past... It does not matter whether Jannat is Sanam, Seher or a completely new character. Also forget Jannat's totally irrational behavior as an amnesic...
My main issue with the story of Jannat and Shaad has EVERYTHING to do with its EXECUTION.
The story is told mainly from the perspective of Shaad and his journey of falling in love' with Jannat.
Shaad's character has two contrasting portrayals the way it is executed for the audience.
1. An average good guy with everyday flaws who falls in love' with an amnesic girl he rescued from trouble.
2. A mentally unstable guy who has developed an obsession for a girl and wants to keep her with him forcibly'. This is where the cvs and fans are failing horribely with regards to Shaad.
Shaad was the good guy with everyday flaws till they showed him lapping up all the caring and attention bestowed on him as she is led to believe he is her husband...
If circumstances (the need to catch SK, to get out of marrying Misbah or her safety) were what was stopping him from telling the truth to Jannat , then the good' guy would have been shown to keep his distance from her instead of being around her all the time and accepting her advances.
Instead we are shown him dancing happily with her, whispering in her ears, holding her hands, sharing a room with her and pretty much acting like a real husband except for sleeping together.
Jannat is pretty much in the position of a girl, being drugged by the guy who has developed an obsession for her and thus is kidnapped and continually being kept drugged so she is blissfully compliant and happy in her drugged state...
Shaad the obsessed kidnapper who is enjoying the attention, caring and advances bestowed on him by his object of obsession and is getting more delusional day by day. It does not matter to him that his object of desire is there without her own free will or by choice. It does not matter to him that she is going through a mental illness and needs treatment which he is withholding from her...
It does not matter that she does not know her own family or life though she has told him she craves for it. In short his love and caring for her goes only as far as it serves his sick need to have her act as his love' and wife. Basically Shaads actions with regards to Jannat are the actions of a pervert or a mentally unbalanced person.
She is pretty much living with him as his wife, sharing a room and a whole host of other intimate compromising situations that would naturally arise between a husband and wife...( except for sleeping on the same bed)...He has been shown to lap up everything else on offer by her...But then it is a misnomer that somebody obsessed with a girl only wants sex with them or that violation of woman only occurs if/when sexual intimacies are forced upon the victim as in rape.
Tell me which woman wants to be in the position of Jannat right now...It does not matter whether she is married or single. Who would want to be kept by a strange man and act in front of the whole society as his wife while it is a complete lie. Who among us would NOT feel violated knowing they allowed intimacies to a total stranger and all this was usurped under a lie without our own free will.
BUT instead of executing this as a gross human rights violation of a woman, the cvs are using this premise to carve out a love story while the actions and violations that Shaad has committed against Jannat speak of a sick obsession.
Every step of the way, this violation of this woman is trivialized and romanticized to the extent that half the audience is able to ENJOY watching Shaad VIOLATE this woman and find every intimate situation shown between them romantic.
The story is told in such a convoluted way that even some of the audience that does not find the situation romantic is able to think of Shaad as a tragic average good guy with everyday human failings on his way to major heart break...AND people are actually able to empathize with the violator INSTEAD of the girl being violated here...
This show has seen numerous instances of every type of horro being committed against people but it has never portrayed any of these situations as anything other than clearly what it is, and wrong in every aspect...be it Dishaad and Rashid, Asad and Tanveer, Haider and Humaira, Sanam and Ahil, Ahil and Seher, Rahat and Haya... and Haya and Faiz (the scenario most similar to Shaad and Jannat currently).
Now the current story of Jannat and Shaad has progressed so far that the only way out of this sick premise so the audience is no longer fed a completely wrong portrayal about exploitation of women as something romantic and trivial is to clearly execute this character Shaad for the mentally unbalanced person his actions towards Jannat portrays him to be ...
And this is how the fans have failed Shaad as well...unnecessary gushing clouds the situation for what it is and the opportunity to tell cvs how it actually looks from the beginning was lost which could have made a difference in how the Shaad/Jannat story was told thus far.
Now the way Shaad is presented by the cvs lack so much substance and continuity and makes him unrelatable and hateful for half the audience.
PS: I actually find it ironic that some wanted this same premise and story for Seher and it would have been all fine and dandy...
With the way Shaad is shown right now, Shaad needs to be portrayed as mentally unbalanced whoever the female opposite him is...Seher or otherwise.
Kumkum Bhagya
