Maya - A master of vices

Originally posted by: FleetingWishes.

I've been wanting to talk about a particular plot device for a long time but just haven't gotten around to it. But I think it's one of the most under-rated and intriguing parts of Beyhadh. And that is 'unreliable narrator' device.

Mostly in movies and shows and especially books the authors use the 'unrealiable narrator' device to keep the readers tightly leashed and glued to the page. It creates mystery and suspense and till the end you're questioning what exactly is happening? You cannot trust the narrator because the narrator is either not in control of their minds, drunk out of their sanity, pathological liars, mentally ill or deluded people. Which is why there's always the question of what exactly happened? Is what the narrator saying true? We've to pick up on the clues.

I think Maya, too, has been an unreliable narrator from the start. She has contradicted herself on multiple occasions and said things which are, in their very nature, untrue. For example when she said that she never wanted to separate Saanjh and Arjun but how she earnestly sought to do so. How she always painted herself as the victim in front of her Ganesh Ji but her actions had always been different. It makes you question every word that comes out of her mouth. Because you know that her actions paint a different story. In this you cannot trust her because her statements are as dubious and have proven to be double-edged and often wrong in the past.

It's the classic case of unreliable narrator and you have to keep asking yourself every time if what you've seen or what you have heard is true or painted in her choice of crimson?

This provides a delicious conflict in the recently aired episode. Do we believe her? Or do we not?

The facts we are already provided with.
-Arjun has told Ayaan everything.
Ayaan is disgusted, saddened and angry. And the two most important emotions at play in this whole fiasco are his anger--his uncontrollable rage--and his disgust. But anger is always an emotion with the graph peaking right at the beginning. Which means a person in incandescent rage on the first day will behave vastly different than a person who has been carrying the rage for let's say 3 days. Because he has had time to cool down. He may still be angry but it wouldn't carry the same impact.
We all know that Ayaan's anger was at its peak when Maya took Arjun. Add to that he was heavily drunk. Heavily. Which meant inhibitions were gone and the anger was multiplied tenfold.

-Maya saw Ayaan when she was in the ambulance. And she also knew that she cannot keep Arjun tied up forever.
The ground beneath her feet had began to slip. One of the biggest reasons she had utmost control on Arjun has always been the factor of isolation. Arjun has noone. He's completely isolated which is why Maya can do and control him as per her wishes. She doesn't have to add the family dynamic and their involvements into the equations. These things don't count in the perimeters. But now all of a sudden Arjun had his family back. Just pulling the suicide stunt wasn't going to cut it because the family would've actively sought to help him now. It wasn't a chance she was ready to take.
Which in this situation meant to actively cut his family out. Now how do you go about it and do it in such a short time? You have to do something drastic and relation-altering. Something intense enough to achieve the cut out in such a short time. What could've she exactly done? Something that would bind Arjun to her forever in the most inseparable ways and also close the family chapter once and for all?
The key to it would be Arjun's guilt.

-Maya clearly cleaned the grounds. Arjun was drugged and tied. Jhanvi was closed in her room. Maya wanted this confrontation to be isolated.

Now Ayaan walks into the house.
He's drunk.
He's enraged.
He's disgusted.
He sees she's fine and Arjun's trapped.

But what does Maya see? Maya is someone who has always acted on the given conditions. She gauges her surroundings, she estimates how she can use her opponent's dishabille, their vices, and then executes a plan. Till now Maya has a vague idea how she wants this to play out but Maya doesn't exactly have the estimates she needs. How angry is Ayaan? How drunk is he? How far can this go?

Now there's a scene where Ayaan grabs Maya and she easily pushes his hand away while they're in a verbal spat. But right in the next moment--riled beyond bearing--he grabs her arm again. There's a pause and a dawning in her eyes.
There are a few things to notice here.
-Ayaan's fingers are coiled around her arm in an agitated, angry bind. There's force behind it. There's barely leashed anger. Ayaan wouldn't have done that or held Maya like that EVER in a million years. This is Ayan. He's meek. He's submissive. He's reckless and careless. He lands up in problems because he has never been taught how to handle them maturely. He has been babied and mollycoddled right out of the crib. Vandana and Arjun both--especially Arjun--have never let him be responsible for his reckless actions. Arjun always reached to either help, dig him out, or take the blame or save the day. And Maya knows this. She saved his ass in prison. Ayan has no sense of awareness of situations. He cannot grasp gravity of them most of times and react in a controlled manner.
Now Maya knows he's beyond angry, he's drunk as hell, he is getting physically agitated.(The hard arm holding). Now she knows exactly how this can pan out. She has her estimations.

They pan on their faces in this moment. And the next moment. Right the next moment he asks her 'how's the wound?' and she says, 'it's barely a scratch.' (instigation)
Ayan points it out. 'Naatak kiya tha mere bhai ko yahaan laane ke liye,'

Maya's face clears. A mask appears on. And she gets physical. She puts her palm on his chest and pushes him away. Now she has purposefully engaged in a physical contact that has no point, that would've served nothing, that is not Maya's style, to further agitate and diminish the physical boundaries.
This is exactly what happens in duels. You first engage in the verbal and then agitations rise which give way to the physical boundaries being diminished as opponents then come forward and begin plummeting one another to the ground.

Maya replies to Ayan's verbal question with a physical shove. Why did she do that?
Ayan looks down at her hand clearly seeing the crossing of a physical barrier. And then comes the verbal instigation.
'Samajhdaar dikhte ho. Ho nahin.' She pushes him away then.
More instigation. 'Tumhaare bhai ne tumhe chordia. Tum sab bojh the uspe.'

Now Ayan is disgusted and enraged by her. He cannot believe the kind of woman she is. Alcohol muddles the sane quarters and everything is intensified as if you're in an arena where rules don't apply. Ayan is fueled to the very cell and there's only one thought stirring him. 'Save Arjun. Teach this person harming his brother a lesson.'
He physically shoves her away--further proof of the violence thrumming through his brain and body. Maya knows it.

Maya knows exactly what happens when a person gets in state of violent rage and desperation. Even doubled if they're drunk. She has been more than anything a victim of it. But the question is does she not recognize the signs or are the signs ruling in her favor?

Ayan still isn't interested in her. All he wants to do is save his brother.
She threatens to call the police and Ayan is all ready for it. Why? Because she's the one holding HIS brother hostage and he's only here to save his brother. In his mind she's not a gender. She's a monster. A monster who has hurt, tortured, ruined his family. His emotions are at the surface.
Again. Now he engages in another physical exchange. He breaks the code of conduct and grabs her by the hair.
It is escalating now.
Arm holding (Ayan) -- Maya putting her palms on his chest and pushing him away -- Ayan shoving back -- Maya pushing him away again -- Ayan grabbing her hair.

Ayan enters Jhanvi's room. The fact that she has her mother locked and that Arjun isn't in the room further agitates him.
His violence, his disgust, his rage is steadily increasing to the point where it's finding a physical outlet. But he's still restraining himself somehow. He's only concentrating on one thing and that's the one thing he's here for. Not to teach her a lesson. But to save his brother.

She pushes him again in Jhanvi's room -- he retaliates again by shoving her harder.

Interestingly Maya doesn't lock Jhanvi in the room again which means that at some point Jhanvi can tell us what happened if she chose to come out and she is the only witness of the actual scene. A loophole on Maya's part.

Ayan's searching again.
Maya pushes him away and grabs him again. He shoves her back again. There's no man and woman here. These are two opponents engaging in a duel.

She holds him again -- he retaliates by grabbing her.
She's cajoling. 'Your brother's not here.'
And he replies, 'For the last time, where is he?'

Maya breaks the cajole again. Her voice changes. The tone shifts from agitated to a very very calm one.
She says in a final, goading tone, 'nahi bataaoongi.' Very softly. Why does she do that? It's altering a set emotion of a character. A character cannot go from panicked, agitated and cornered to very calm, very soft in a second. This is inorganic graph changing. Not until the character deliberately means it.
Her eyes are cold and inviting for the reaction she expects.
And he raises his hand to that instigation and goading but again stops just in time.

It's all about to spill any moment though. Just one push.
Ayan knows about her nature now. And the disgust finds an outlet in words. 'i know women like you. I'm going to free my brother from this hell.'

He still is concentrating on nothing but Arjun.
He shoves her away again. This monster. this animal. In his mind she's the worst possible human. No man. No woman. But a living, breathing evil.

Now comes the tipping point. The breaking point. The acme where hell unleashes.
Ayan sees Arjun tied and locked no worse than a caged animal, no worse than a prisoner. Ayan's anger finds its tipping point. The violence beneath the surface releases the claws. All it needs is one trigger.
Maya's voice changes again. Now she's in front of Arjun's room. It goes from, calm, goading and cold to agitated, cornered again. Just in a second.
She grabs his shirt again and pushes him away.
She then stands in front of the door.

The door behind which Ayan's main focus is. Arjun is. Up until this point it was all about Arjun. Where is Arjun? Take him away from here.
But now Ayan's focus shifts to Maya for the very first time. Because she is standing between him and Arjun and he has to save Arjun anyhow.

He asks her for the keys. She says she'd die but not give him the keys.
His violence, his rage, his disgust, his agony, his frustration is finding an outlet now. It's too much. It's too unbearable and it is now bleeding through words, 'death? Death's too easy for you. I'll do much much worse to you.'
But this isn't a man trying to intimidate a woman.
this is a person so thoroughly disgusted by a person he considers the epitome of evil and the jailer of his brother--his brother--the person he loves to death.

He pushes her away.
The keys are on the table.
His gaze shifts to her.
Now two things happen.
The keys disappear from the table. Which means she clutched them. 2) Ayan obviously saw her clutching those keys.

The trigger comes.
All he can think of is getting the keys and getting his brother out. All of this has only fueled his frustration and rage and he cannot wait to free his brother. That freedom lie behind a set of keys.

Now here's the thing.
Up until now Maya was very composed. Not a few minutes ago she calmly threatened him. Then she stood in front of a door and their confrontation was again on the same lines.
He pushed her away before as well.
But something happens when he pushes her away this time and she grabs the keys.
Her voice goes from agitated, resolved to tremoring and shaking.
There isn't a bridge here. A normal transition.

He has shoved her more than 3 times by now throughout. He grabbed her hair too. But she was calm, unhinged, still engaged in keeping him away from Arjun.
Now all he does is shove her away.
We see the keys.
then the keys are gone.
and he says 'kya lagta hai tumhe yeh harkat karke bachjaaogi?' which can suggest that he's talking about her shutting his brother and taking the keys.
She took the keys. They're in her hands. She's clutching her hands to her chest.
Her voice has gone from resolved to a tremor right in a minisecond but why? It should've been.
'Threatening--threatened--rage--nervous--trembling.'

We can explain that by saying she was scared of him physically harming her. It brought back the old times. But until this point HE HAS BEEN PHYSICAL. He doesn't give any sign of launching into a sexual or brutal physical attack. Up until this point they both were engaging in an equal synchronization. He was threatening, shoving, she was threatening, shoving. Now all of a sudden her demeanor changes. It goes from equally poised and agitated to one of cowering and submissive.
Which means Ayan might still be running on the same graph length but Maya's emotions take such a drastic decline that we see the power dynamic completely shifting.

The tipping point has been reached.
Ayan's anger explodes and adrenaline kicks in. Everything concentrated on one point. The keys.
His eyes go down again and again--as if he's lewdly staring at her body--but they're pinned to her hands. He's seeing the hands--the hands that hold they keys.
His voice holds intense disgust and menace for this person he sees as nothing but vile and evil.

She runs. He makes a grab for her. Her sleeve is torn. He didn't deliberately tear it but he also shows no remorse. Which means he's gone--riled and agitated beyond the tipping point--and all he cares about is getting the keys and freeing Arjun anyhow.

He makes a grab for her again. She eludes him. In this scene we know that she has the keys. But now her hands are empty. Ayan has been following her movements. Which means she hid the keys somewhere within her dress. If she'd hidden them somewhere else why would he follow her and not the keys? And if not in her dress then where? They weren't in her hands. Ayan again lunges for her.
She says 'I'm your brother's wife.'
He says she WAS. She WAS his bhabhi-a woman he loved and trusted and respected. Now she disgusts him.

It's interesting how the scene isn't showed in fluidity but is shown in sliced frames. Say if a second is 30 or 60 frames we're shown frames cut in between and glued together. Which means there are a lot of frames and seconds that we have missed.

She gets away again. He tries to reach for her, grab her, and the sleeve is torn. He doesn't deliberately tear it.

Now is the most interesting part. If Ayan's focus was physically or sexually assaulting Maya he would've gone for her right? But now he grabs her and starts turning her around. Back and forth without lewdly touching her or hitting her or abusing her. He's desperately turning her around and looking for something. WHY? WHAT? THE KEYS!!

Now the whole scene cuts away.
A whole chunk of scene is gone.
the last scene we have is him standing above her turning her around.
The next scene we have is him over her, his face hidden by her neck, and Maya screaming her lungs out.
What exactly happened here? We have no idea.
But the scene doesn't even last two seconds for us to gauge what exactly is Ayan doing and Samay pulls him away.

The next thing Maya says he tried to rape her.
And Ayan is shocked out of his wits. We're shown Ayan's reaction which is utter and complete shock.

Another interesting question is where did the bite mark come from? Did he or did he not bite her?
In the precap Maya is guilt-tripping Arjun. She says Arjun's hatred-Arjun is the reason Ayan did this.
It's very interesting because up until this point Maya is never ready to accept that she's not keeping Arjun happy or Arjun would ever be the reason behind any of it. But what exactly will this achieve? It will send Arjun in the worst guilt ever. He'd be crushed and forever shameful and locked to her. He'd never leave her now. He'd leave his family but not her.

This is EXACTLY what Maya wants. This is the most ideal solution to all her problems. Is it a coincidence or plan that what she exactly wants HAPPENS? Can a coincidence be so precise?

I'm giving the benefit of doubt to Ayan. Obviously, if I'm proven wrong and Ayan's main aim WAS to sexually/brutally assault her, i'll want him to be punished as severely as rapists should be. It is the vilest, most disgusting act, it is one of the biggest evils in the world and there's NOO EXPLAINING, NO JUSTIFYING IT. And I hope he gets his due then.

If this was a PHD THESIS OR SOMETHING I WOULD'VE PASSED! Must stop the essay.😆