Jai Shree Krishna, people of the forum!!🙏🏼
The last post turned out to be such a surprising success ki socha part 2 bana du to discuss today's episode. Before I share my opinions, a big thank you to all who participated and shared their POVs and a bigger thanks because we put in different opinions without fighting. Such a rare thing to happen on the forum these days! Now, let's get to the episode because we've gotten a balanced episode after such a long time.
MEENAKSHI
Up top, I will confess that I did feel bad for Meenu but more than her, I felt bad for Kunal. He is stuck in this mess of a situation without any fault of his but Kunal ke baare me baad me. This post is about the star of today's episode and our favourite BB🐉.
I am still not sure as to how I really see Meenakshi's character. I feel there are different sides to her. Hats off to Rupal Ji's acting skills!
Watching Meenakshi is like watching multiple split personalities exist at the same time and I felt we saw all of her personalities in today's episode
1. Meenu/Maa, the mother: The one who accepted Kunal as her own son and raised the two kids to be each other's shield; to be more than real brothers. (The one that got hurt by Kunal's move. The one who told him that she wouldn't have stopped him if he had told her that he wanted the ribbon cutting to be done by Parul).
2. Big Ben, the schemer: The one who is continuously observing each and every person and knows what might trigger them. She is always in character (Even when she was upset, she remembered to stay in character and tell Kuhu that she accepted both Mishti and Kuhu as her own daughter. She even tried to provoke Kuhu by constantly asking her if it was all Mishti's doing.)
3. Benba, RV family's matriarch: The businesswoman who cares about keeping the family together. The one who is Parul's friend. We only ever saw this version in it's entirety after the leap when she didn't have to worry about Baba or Mishti. (We saw this version when she spoke with Naanu).
4. Meenakshi Rajvansh, the narcissist and control freak: The one who cares only about herself. The one for whom only her wishes, her authority and her image are the priority (We see her emerge in the conversation with Abir).
All these different versions/personalities exist at the same time in different degrees. What we get to see the most is the 2nd and 4th one because her darker shades overpower her lighter shades. She believes herself to be the mother and the matriarch, probably because that's who she was till the time Mehul was in her life. The darker shades grew and developed as a defence mechanism and then as a survival technique.
Now, I'm gonna move on to other members of the family.
KUNAL
The poor guy can't even understand where he stands in all this mess he has unwittingly created. I feel that since he was a kid, he was taught (by Meenu) that when in doubt, do whatever would make Abir happy (and vice versa for Abir but that didn't sink in for Abir as much as it did for Kunal because he didn't trust his mother completely). As I mentioned above, Meenakshi taught them to be brothers first before anything else and that is what backfired on her today. He is Abir's Nanko before he is Meenakshi/Parul's son.
The problem in Kunal's case is that he doesn't know who he is if he can't be defined by a relation. He has been doing a balancing act between being the best brother and the best son that there was no space left for his own identity. That is the confusion that we've seen in the last few episodes and that is where Meenu's teaching comes in and it becomes a cycle turning him into only and only Nanko.
ABIR
The problem I had with Abir's approach (and my issue with Abir's character in general), he is well aware of Kunal's behaviour and his characteristics. He has himself mentioned this many a times throughout the past year. The issue I have with Abir is that he uses this knowledge according to his convenience. He wants Kunal to have his own identity and make his own decisions but when the time comes, he always swoops in and influences him and then acts as if he had nothing to do with it. What he knows but will never accept is that he has the kind of control over Nanko that Meenakshi wishes to have over him. If I have to over-simplify it, I would say Abir is basically a positive Meenakshi. They both have very similar characteristics and methods of execution, only the intent and motivation is different.
Coming to the conversation between Abir and Meenakshi, it clearly shows that they don't trust each other. There was some hope of this relationship building back up again during the MishBir GD but BB crushed whatever was left with targetting people that Abir held closest to his heart.
Also, the one dialogue that stuck out for me the most was when BB says that he will have to hear the whole truth which basically hints that there is much more to this Sautan saga than has been told till now which frankly gives me hope that the writers have planned till the "Second adhyaya of Baba's story" and the show will not be destroyed till such time (*cough* like the *cough* parent show *cough*). The scene also confirmed the theory that BB never saw Parul as an equal but she also did not make her a house help. She had taken her in and Parul herself took on responsibilities to aid Meenakshi in her quest of being a single parent and businesswoman. This reminds of a point by @dramaqueen/@samanalyse/both that Parul and Meenakshi are basically partners, one is a homemaker and the other, a breadwinner. I do feel the question as to why she took her in must have more to it than just "insaaniyat" on BB's part.
KUHU
Can I just say that I was so pleasantly surprised to see the sensible Kuhu come back in bits and parts today??
She put aside her anger and need for attention and focussed on Meenu and Kunal. Well, not completely but jitne bhi der ke liye kiya, I was happy for it. I am just gonna edit and quote Sam's post here because she wrote all my feelings before I had even seen the episode.
Originally posted by: Samanalyse
It was also wonderful to see glimpses of Kuhu at her best -- being the pragmatic anchor of the family, and trying to ease the tension of the overall situation in a systematic way. I love that Nanu specifically asked Kuhu to take him to Meenu.
If we use our handy filters to look past the OTT dialogues (especially the one in the precap), it's very easy to understand her anger and confusion over this situation. Both she and Varsha also empathise with Meenu instinctively because their relationship mirrors Meenu and Kunal's. If anyone can begin to understand what Meenu must be feeling right now, it's Varsha.
Moreover, when she was deciding whether to stay in her marriage or not, it was Meenu who validated her as a bahu and an integral part of the family. She has no idea that Meenu is being disingenuous, so her affinity and loyalty towards her makes perfect sense. Combine that with how she equates Kunal hurting Meenu with Varsha being hurt in the same way, and you can see why this impulsive act of Kunal's will have her flying off the wall.
I know we didn't get a Kuku scene, but can I just fangirl over the fact that in the aftermath of this seismic shock, Kunal was taking care of her parents and explaining to them, while Kuhu took care of his mom and tried to reason with her?
I don't think I need to say anything more but if anyone does want to read my initial thoughts on the episode, they exist on the KuKu AT page 96.
Also, I know she is going to be shown going over the line tomorrow with the 'Naukrani' comment and weirdly, it still won't be out of character because that's how her character has been written. She gets easily influenced. Has anyone else noticed that both MishKu fixate and overthink on Jasmeet and Meenakshi's words but in Mishti's case, she has people who are there to stop that fixation at the overthinking stage but for Kuhu, people either shut her down or scold her. Take BM and Varsha for example, the same women sense Mishti's worries and guide her properly (Friday's episode) but when it comes to Kuhu, they see her be sad and instead of asking and understanding, they shout at her and scold her (Holi episode). These Maheshwaris are just giving me more and more ammunition to hate them by being biased😒.
MISHTI
Mishti's scenes with Parul were super sweet but I had to keep reminding myself of the bond they shared before the leap so that I could see the scenes neutrally. Am I the only one who feels that Mishti expressions looked overly sweet in the last 2 episodes? It reminded me of the fake smiley face I make during "mahino ke unn din" so that nobody finds out how much pain I am actually in (Probably Rhea was in pain, who knows?) It made me really uncomfortable which is probably how some of you felt while reading the previous line. I really don't have a lot to say about Mishti except that she should have shown Abir the mirror rather than praising him for said move.
Coming to the actual point here, I really think Mishti and Abir need a better example to hold a family together than Mr. BP "Mukhiya" Maheshwari, otherwise they will keep praising each other assuming they have successfully handled a situation but in actuality, they will keep ruining family dynamics to make one person super happy. Don't get me wrong. I loved that they made Parul happy by giving her the "darja" that has been talked about since the shivratri episode but this decision just makes one person happy and leaves other family members either shocked/surprised, confused, sad or angry. They have no choice but to get over what they are feeling and accept the consequences no matter what. You can't judge what is good for your family members through a million views on a video. This is not the way to handle a family and if this is how they are instinctively going to handle family dynamics, RV fam should be scared for their future. I use the word "scared" because every move like this will be a move against BB and we know what that will lead to: 💣💥
PARUL
Parul looked so happy today
and Kunal looked confused happy because he is still not sure what he feels about Parul because Abir ne kari jaldbaazi. Also, I loved how Parul, even though happy, was worried about her SO, our BB. There's really not much to say about Parul because even she didn't have much to say in today's episode.
Shuruaat BB se kari thi to end unki jeevan sangini se hi to karenge na and also, because this is the last time Parul will ever be happy. This is the beginning of the end for Parul. Jis din saare sapne poore hue, usi din barbaadi ki shuruaat ho gayi. *Dun dun dun🎹*
In the end, I have to say that the writers have done a great job in creating the characters. Each character is so layered and flawed that even after so many months of watching this show, I keep discovering new things about each character and the way they are written. This is probably the first show where every character has flaws, even the main leads.
P.S. Sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings by saying anything bad about your favourite character. I tried to be as polite and general as I could but it was a POV post so 🙈.
P.P.S. How have there not been any full-length pictures of Kaveri and Rhea in the outfits they were wearing today? They both looked so gorgeous!!
CID
Ishaani
