Originally posted by: amritat
Disclaimer:
1. This is purely my POV.
2. I understand the meaning of "dark love story" 3. I do not expect any mushy nonsense in this show.
4. I do not expect Vansh to behave like Naitik from Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hain.
5. I understand that love makes one submissive at times.
But...
***
What does this show truly lack?
Well, practically everything except good actors and good bgm.
But if we dissect further and try to analyze the core essence, what this show truly lacks - in my opinion - is a good female writer writing from female POV.
Basically, a solid female (not "feminist") perspective of things.
For the past few days, many of us have been grumbling about the show and its lack of logic. To be very honest, it never had much logic to begin with...but still we all stuck to it because of our fascination with "dark love story". And of course, the lead pair.
So, despite all plotholes, poor editing and tons of errors, we hung on, hoping to get some spice "someday".
And finally, that "someday" arrived. Right now, we have
1. Jealous, possessive, dark Vansh
2. Angst between Riansh
3. Truth of Ridhbir out
Basically all that we ever wanted.
And yet, nothing feels right. Yeah...yeah... I am dancing around for the angst quotient 😆, I cannot completely discount those that are bashing the current track.
Earlier, the issues were primarily with logic and editing. But now, it seems like the writers have completely forgotten the story they began with.
However, the main focus of this article is Riddhima. Now, that girl has always been dumb and impulsive in love. Stupid and no consistency in her thinking.
But right now, she seems to have lost her memory too, along with all traces of self-respect (which was anyway always there in her in sparse amount).
This is where the core point of this article comes up. The main problem with the show is that it lacks a solid female perspective.
Now, one might say - Come on...the protagonist is a female...how much more female POV do you need?
See, here's the thing.
The protagonist might be a female, but the main writers are mostly men. (I am assuming Mamta gave the basic template but doesnt write episodes daily). Even if there are female wrirers involved, they are doing a poor job. And because of this, they completely miss out on certain OBVIOUS things.
Having a female protagonist doesnt necessarily make the show a "female POV". Showing female lead pray in front of Ganeshji or wearing sindoor, mangalsutra, etc...or showing her as an eternal bechari is not female POV. There is very little exploration into the female psyche.
For example...
Which woman would instantly think about getting married to a mafia? Shouldnt she be worried about getting raped? We never see Riddhima worried about that. EVER.
There are tons of such moments, where I felt this lacking of female perspective. But today's episode made me upset enough to write this long post.
This show might have a female protagonist...but it does not exactly explore the female psyche.
What it does is basically justify the hypocrisies of the men using the female protagonist as a tool.
In this whole revenge saga, Vansh is venting out like a lost case...But Riddhima is not for once saying what is needed to be said.
She is not pointing out these cardinal points:
- 1. Vansh always had a doubt on her being a spy...for which he treated her with so much suspicion from the beginning.
- 2. The manner of Vansh's proposal and their marriage. It was not love marriage.
- 3. Vansh was NOT exactly kind to her either in the initial days of their marriage.
- 4. Vansh too has a past...his first love/crush/infatuation Ragini. He even made a tattoo in his hand!
- 5. He never trusted Riddhima but expected blind trust in return.
- 6. He was never very transparent and honest with her just like she wasnt with him.
- 7. He took care of his ex for 3 years, lied about her to his wife...even secretly went to meet her (for whatever reason) but Riddhima never made a fuss about it or threw tantrums about him being unfaithful.
- 8. He kept mouthing big words of promises to protect her but almost always condoned her tormentors again and again.
- 9. She might have betrayed him about Ragini...but her intention was never to harm him.
So it is not like the idea of Riddhima being a spy and having a mastermind behind her is something new to Vansh. He may not have had concrete evidence before...but he always had a doubt.
I dont know why but Riddhima never makes any solid effort to explain her side of the story with proper facts. Instead, she keeps crying like a bechari...apologizing, begging, pleading. Riddhima is NOT a weak character to me...she is just poorly written. Her only job seems to massage her husband's ego.
We saw a similar situation back during Navratri as well where he accused Riddhima of not trusting him...while he was doing the exactly the same to her. And Riddhima silently listened to every accusation without ever bothering to correct him or make him understand her perspective.
Yes, Vansh is a possessive man and has been kind to her for sometime as a husband post the first shootout. He feels betrayed bcoz of his half-knowledge...fair enough. Once he gets to find out the full truth, he will soften.
But the problem I see with Vansh's behaviour right now has less to do with half-knowledge and more to do with hypocrisy.
Right now, Vansh is behaving like he was an innocent, gullible man who was seduced by a femme fatale named Riddhima only to find out she is a liar.
Come on, Vansh! When you married her...you knew EXACTLY what you were getting into! At least Riddhima has the excuse of being a homeless, orphan who was emotionally blackmailed by her lover into this marriage, but you?
You, my dear Vansh are a rich businessman with all the right resources to wrench out information if you wanted to. Then why play victim now?
But it is not Vansh but Riddhima who pisses me off more in this context.
She too is condoning and overlooking all of Vansh's fallacies and putting the whole blame on herself.
I understand she in in love...we all have been in love at some point of our lives and know what it does to us.
But this recurring theme of levying all accusation on the female lead where she silently accepts it all, without the hero having to give any justification/redemption for his own actions is kind of...glaring.
Ekta's shows were horrible, but at least her heroines like Tulsi, Parvati, etc stood up for their self-respect...even against the men they loved more than their life.
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