Dear writers, continue PROPERLY what you started please

There is no research done from the writers of this show since they have no idea how to handle 2/3 of the main characters. Mauli is responding exactly like the way she should be. Not every wife would respond that way but she is dealing with this thing that is happening to her. She is taking her time and thinking over what exactly it is that has happened to her. It hasn't been overnight but something like this would not be resolved that easily of course. The other characters do not stop to think about their actions even for a second, especially Nandani. I keep asking and asking but why create a character of such complexity if you literally do not know how to showcase her feelings. If Nandani was written with the same care as Mauli, Nandani would never consider Mauli to be invisible in her equation with Kunal. Why did the writers develop such a strong friendship between the women if that friendship was not going to be the motivator of Nandani to not act on her feelings. The way Nandani's dialogues are written, Mauli might as well be a stranger. Did the writers forget to research on battered women? This is not a simple matter at hand, there are deep psychological scars left on Nandani and having her jump on Kunal is like putting a band-aid on a bullet wound. It's bound to fall apart. If you've taken a concept like EMA and include the traumatic aspect of the abuse as well, you have to let your characters give justice to all of it.

Writers never knew how to explore Nandini. They were focused on Mauli only. Even I don't understand the whole point of using friendship plot if it wasn't to be used anywhere. I mean Nandini doesn't even think about Mauli, how it it possible for a woman who yearned for Mauli for 7 years. I still remember those tears when she saw Mauli in the conference & how she ran to make a cake for her & how she ran behind her to only catch her. What happened to that Nandini. I remember that girl who would get so excited for her friend & suggest perfumes for her to Kunal & run to tell Mauli about her pregnancy first. Mauli was the first person to know about her pregnancy. What happened to that woman. Where is the woman who would contact Mauli only when she falls in trouble as she thought her to be her only savior. (I don't know if such deep friendships can be forgotten in a snap just like that).

Originally posted by: arshi_asya

Writers never knew how to explore Nandini. They were focused on Mauli only. Even I don't understand the whole point of using friendship plot if it wasn't to be used anywhere. I mean Nandini doesn't even think about Mauli, how it it possible for a woman who yearned for Mauli for 7 years. I still remember those tears when she saw Mauli in the conference & how she ran to make a cake for her & how she ran behind her to only catch her. What happened to that Nandini. I remember that girl who would get so excited for her friend & suggest perfumes for her to Kunal & run to tell Mauli about her pregnancy first. Mauli was the first person to know about her pregnancy. What happened to that woman. Where is the woman who would contact Mauli only when she falls in trouble as she thought her to be her only savior. (I don't know if such deep friendships can be forgotten in a snap just like that).

I remember Kottary wrote Gauri, even though she was highly flawed, she was thousand times better written than Nandini.

As far as the psychological issues are concerned, I don't think makers are ever going to deal with that.

I don't know this Nandini, I can barely connect her with old Nandini. She is at extreme end of her old self, which makes me completely hate her.

Writers have paid very minute attention to Mauli & everything about her but for the other two, she just completely forgot to do what she wanted to do. For the leads of a show, they are the worst I have ever seen. There is no introspection by any of the two, they don't think, no self-talk, no communication. WHY? Even Maya was better since even thought with all her psychological issues, her self-talks used to be great that would give an insight to what she was thinking at that moment & where would that lead to. Even all the typical vamps of EK are better written than Nandini & Kunal in this show.

Can't believe Kottary wrote these characters. Why even touch sensitive topics when you can't deal with them. (But I can't say that too since in BV she had very similar characters every now & then & she dealt with them so nicely- be it Ganga, Sanchi, Dadisa, Gauri, Anandi, Gehna, Sugna, Shiv, Jagiya, Basant & every other character of that show).

I have no idea of those other characters lol but I agree with the first part. I was fine with her not thinking about Mauli in the beginning because it seemed like self-preservation. If she didn't think about the consequences then she would be able to be with Kunal happily. But even after reminders from countless people that she betrayed her best friend, Nandani's still not thinking about Mauli. It seems a little unrealistic now, after all this time.

Originally posted by: WhyHate

I agree with you. Not only do they not know how to write Nandini's character, but they don't how to progress the story! I'm sorry that I am so negative about Nandini's character, but it's not her, it's the CVs destroying her character.

Here's how the story should have or could have progressed:

• Nandini finally realizes what an abusive man Rajdeep is and leaves him with Mauli's help. She moves into Mauli's house to get back on her feet.
• The CVs could have explored her terror, her fear, her anxiety here. They could have shown things like her having nightmares. When Kunal approaches her, she could shrink back until she comes to trust him. Seeing knives or belts or whatever other instruments she was hit with, held in certain ways could bring back the terror that it is Rajdeep and Mauli, Yamini, or Dida bringing her out of that terror. They absolutely needed to show that she can't trust Kunal right away and that the only people she talks to are Mauli, Yamini, and Dida.
• From here the CVs could have progressed to Nandini getting Rajdeep arrested and getting divorced him. This is the first step to freedom. Here it would make sense to show a typical Indian TV scene where she steps outside into the fresh air, pulls the mangalsutra off her neck, spreads her arms out, and turns around and around taking in the fresh air. If they wanted to add rain, so be it. But it would be a symbolic scene of the first breath of fresh air that she would get.
• From here they move on to showing Nandini starting to trust Kunal. When they are alone in the house, Nandini is comfortable being around him. The two talk and slowly Kunal helps her realize that she isn't the piece of garbage Rajdeep always called her. She starts coming out of her shell.
  
• Now if they wanted to show Rajdeep terrorizing her and the suicide attempt and Kunal calming her down would be a great move because it would show that Nandini can never fully let go of her trauma, but at the same time, she's connecting with Kunal emotionally.
• They needed to spend a few weeks at the minimum showing Nandini going from this weak, traumatized person to a stronger-minded, trauma-driven person. A trauma-driven person is one who takes the trauma and makes it a way to move forward. She or he learns from the trauma and adapts to it. In Nandini's case, she could have realized on her own that throughout the trauma the one thing that kept her sane was her love for cooking and so she can take that and move forward.
• Now here if they wished to introduce an EMA angle, it's fine. But it would have been nicer if it was more an emotional connect than physical. In fact they could have done without the EMA angle at all. They could have shown Kunal and Nandini relying on each other emotionally, a complex relationship in itself. To anyone outside it might appear to be EMA because they are more than friends, but they are not lovers. Kunal loves Mauli and Nandini finds someone else, but they still go to each other when they need something.
• But if they want to show EMA, then they could have started it off emotionally where both connect with each other emotionally. For Nandini, Mauli is too practical and while she appreciates her best friend, it's the emotional support that Kunal provides that helps her move forward. And I have no idea what for Kunal cause his character is so badly written that I'm not sure what he wants from Nandini.
• Anyways they carry this forward until they both realize that things are going too far and they try to pull apart. And this must be shown! They need to make genuine efforts to actually stay away from each other, but they keep pulling towards each other because they need each other emotionally.
• Then maybe a few months later, if the CVs wanted to take it physical, they can. From here though showing guilt was important.
• But more than that once Mauli sees and realizes what is going on, both actually need to be guilty. They can't be like what they are now where Nandini doesn't give a damn about Mauli and Kunal only sees Nandini everywhere.

But I guess this is too much to expect from anyone on Indian TV because it would either be shown really fast or really slow since a conversation can't be shown without close-ups or annoying background music or grey shades or whatever.

Originally posted by: WhyHate

^ I never watched Balika Vadhu, but what you said sounds so good. They actually did handle the characters properly it seems there. Actually this is probably the first drama TV serial I'm watching in a long time and even this I only started watching because I thought the CVs would handle stuff properly, but now I'm losing interest and who knows how long I'll stick around.

@whyhate- yes I would have loved that progression! Go apply for a writers position in the show lmao

Originally posted by: music_l0ver036

@whyhate- yes I would have loved that progression! Go apply for a writers position in the show lmao

@arshi- yooo I wanna watch that show now. Ugh flawed characters that I can analyze for days is my favorite. aka why I like Nandani so much.

Originally posted by: arshi_asya

Balika Vadhu is a very long show with over 2000+ episodes. It's on Voot.

I didn't want child marriage part of Anandi & started watching it solely for Shiv-Anandi (Show was great from Shiv's entry). It may turn out boring at times & that's why I watched it again few years ago by skipping scenes).

If you want to watch, then try to watch it from episode 1000 if you want to watch Shiv-Anandi (Ganga, Sanchi, Jagiya's marriage doom, His guilt, Dadisa funny & mature side came after that episode only).

But if you want to watch complete EMA of Gauri-Jagiya (then you may watch it from first time leap, where both Jagiya-Anandi are shown to be grown up, from some 500 episode, I guess, EMA starts after 600th episode as long as I remember).

Show is good until second time leap after which Anandi's daughter too is kidnapped & married as a baby. I lost interest after that.

Voot has all the episodes with episode titles. You may find that out from the point you think story might be interesting.

(For me EMA part was partially interesting since everyone tried to reason with Jagiya & he didn't budge & went along to marry Gauri. His family disowned him & officially took Anandi as their daughter. But even in EMA & marriage, Gauri wasn't bechari, she was a very head-strong woman & Jagiya behaved more like a pampered brat who couldn't keep up with Gauri's success & his constant failures. For every failure of his life, he would blame Gauri & Gauri would then show him the mirror. Gauri was a flawed character in the beginning, I hated with passion along with Jagiya, but if watched now, one may actually be able to balance them out. But they were very consistent throughout). BV had a lot of grey characters. Extreme bad was rarely explored in that show till I watched.

wowww thats really long. But okay I'll play it by ear and see what's interesting. Thank you for this information!

I watched BV from the beginning till Shiv s death. Anandi Jagiya Gauri was so well written. There was a context, build up and culmination. You could understand each characters POV which made sense whether u agreed with them or not. The EMA was thought provoking and well presented. It's unbelievable that the writer is same and pathetic writing of Nandini and Kunal s characters.