Originally posted by: Bodhianveshika
Ok this is probably going to be a looooooong post and hopefully the last set of charcha from my end on this thread.
You can't start something so interesting and escape that this is the last charcha. No no no, not allowed :-) It is interesting too see so many POVs for a fictional story!! So please stay....
I think the first and foremost thing for all of us to keep in mind as we try to make sense of this show is that this is a daily soap and is bound to be dramatic and over the top. If not, it would be a news item that would get over in a few days. So let's just say some of the ridiculousness and unrealistic plotlines fall under the category of "creative" license, and we are using the term creative in a very broad manner!
1. Imlie's intentions:
What were Imlie's intentions?
To get Aditya and Malini married and then not allow for them to be in a relation by coming in their way (excerpt link shared previously)? She expected none to doubt her, call her betrayal out and not be hurt?
Imlie is the titular character. She HAD to be kept relevant, and kept relevant with Aditya, because they ARE the leads of the show. The show is centered around their relationship. So if Imlie had just gone her merry way accepting A and M's marriage, there would have been no story. With that out of the way, let's look at her characterization a bit. She was an 18 yr old girl forced into a marriage that she did not really want, but was also probably raised with notions and ideas about sindoor, mangalsutra, rishta, pati etc. And hence her commitment to the relationship even if Adi wanted no part of it initially is all probably stemming from these notions. Also seeing her mom who had to face constant brickbats on being an unmarried mother etc., probably are all part of her psyche.
Also, in general it did not seem right from the beginning that anyone in the Tripathi family was really about giving anyone their space and privacy.... so there's that.
To forcefully search a groom for Malini without her knowledge and get married? Was it to satisfy her own guilt or was it to push the blame of having an extra-marital affair on Malini?
Where did she search for a groom for Malini? Wasn't it Malini herself that fibbed about Kunal Chauhan to get Adi to say whatever it was that he was trying to tell her? I thought that was a pretty manipulative move and not mahaan at all, as some seem to be touting. It may have been presented that she was trying to save Adi the guilt of having to accept his relationship with Imlie, and that's probably how the writers intended it for Malini's character at that time, but it was still a jerk move, IMO, to lie about a non-existent lover!! If you remember, Imlie was infact the one that kept throwing doubts about the existence of any boyfriend of Malini's. Aside from that, even when Radha said something about Malini, Adi reprimanded her that nothing wrong shall be spoken about Malini by anyone.
The argument to ALL this being her immaturity? Alright, but what were Aditya, Mithi, Satyakam doing? Did anyone try to make her understand?
The way I see it, Adi seemed really torn between feeling a strong attraction to Imlie and the feeling of security in a relationship with Malini. He seemed to find the relationship with Malini more convenient than anything else. She was ever ready to support him in his journalistic endeavors, OK with him prioritizing his work over her etc., and he just found all that convenient is how I am interpreting this. Mithi and Satyakam are probably all victims of the same notions of marriage and sindoor like Imlie is...so...
And now ALL of a sudden in less than a year she has become mature to say, "Mera pati sirf mera hain"? He is no toy right?
Malini seemed to want to give Imlie and Aditya the freedom to move further in their relationship and it is only after that assurance that Imlie seemed to accept her love for Aditya. Also, there were aspersions being cast on Adi's character which further cemented her resolve to accept Aditya as her husband and be accepted as his wife. Malini said OK initially, but now suddenly wants to backtrack?
What was Aditya's intentions?
To marry Malini while still being married to Imlie and in full consciousness? To give in to Imlie's demand to hide the truth? To continue to betray Malini because of her weak Mental health?
Yes. This was completely wrong, and it was an extremely flimsy excuse that Malini would faint and hence he hid it. But to try and make a little more sense of it, he was initially in complete denial about the marriage and did not want to acknowledge it at all. Not to mention, he saw it as a big insult to his self-respect. To go a step further, you are so shocked by something that happened to you that you just block it out completely, but only in this case, Imlie's presence was a constant reminder of that trauma and combined with the guilt of having hid this from Malini, he kept ill treating Imlie, not considering that she went through at least as much trauma as he did, if not more. But I guess he eventually just could not do it anymore, fell in love with Imlie to boot, and wanted to set Malini free, because being in a loveless marriage, he understood was unfair for all the 3 of them involved. And Malini's declaration of having another person in her life basically assuaged him a little bit of his guilt, but then it returned multi-fold later, when he knew Malini had lied about KC, which is probably also the reason why he is finding it so difficult to believe that she is now a bad person. He is still wallowing in guilt somewhere.
How conveniently did Dev ask Malini to give everything up? To satisfy his own guilt? What about how he has treated Anu Chaturvedi and cheated on her?
Dev is an idiot. He was wrong right from the get go. Anu and Dev should have just ended their marriage. Some marriages are better ended than keeping for the sake of society/children, whatever! But again, Malini WAS ready initially to give everything up, so not sure why she suddenly flipped!
Yes Malini not caring her Pregnancy is wrong, absolutely wrong. Now her hurt, the betrayals she has faced has psyched her and Aditya has become her obsession, I guess. Hope she realises for her own good.
Yeah, when a guy has pretty clearly said that he doesn't love you, you really should let go and not turn into a psycho. That is not a good outcome for anyone! And you certainly do not go about raping people or try to sell people into slavery and things like that!!
2. Imlie-Aditya's sufferings:
Imlie-Aditya's sufferings are their own creation. They are solely responsible for their actions and subsequent consequences.
Absolutely. And they faced/ are facing the consequences!!
The only incorrect thing that happened to Imlie and Aditya was a forced marriage. (Even in that, why did Aditya not tell the villagers that he was engaged to be married?). I believe a marriage under force is not a legal marriage. Regardless, why did she get Malini and Aditya Married and is now claiming being the first wife?
Yes. Anything forced is not correct. Apparently a marriage conducted in accordance to the rituals believed by a certain community is considered valid, even if it is not registered. And apparently, in case of consent obtained by force, a complaint needs to be filed within 1 year of the force ceasing to exist (which might have been when he went to drop Imlie at PD after his marriage to Malini, but even then, when Imlie is shot, he willingly told the inspector "humari patni", so I guess the force did not really exist then). So he is still within the window to file a complaint of forced marriage to declare his marriage to Imlie null and void, but obviously, he has now declared several times that Imlie humari patni hai that filing anything is really moot. As for him not telling the villagers he was engaged, the villagers did not think anything of marrying off an 18 yr old to man they barely knew, so I don't think him disclosing anything would have made any difference!
The complications that occurred thereon is a consequence of Hiding their marriage, betraying everyone, adultery.
What Malini did is not pardonable. No doubts about it.
Hence, Malini should certainly be convicted, Aditya and Imlie should be convicted for bigamy (Aditya only) and adultery amd Dev should be convicted for adultery.
While Aditya certainly perpetrated the fraud by hiding his marriage to Malini and committed bigamy, te
Apparently, the aggrieved party or the party's father (Malini or Dev in this case) should be the ones filing the complaint. Also, it seems the second marriage is considered void and null if there is a first marriage. So I am not sure of the validity of Adi and Malini's marriage.
Adultery...? There was no adultery in Aditya's case, since there is no physical relationship between Imlie and Aditya. Even if there was, adultery is not a criminal offense, only a civil offense that can be the basis of divorce. (In my very personal opinion, adultery may be immoral, but certainly not criminal. It is an act committed by 2 consenting adults, so nothing criminal about it.)
Now, marital rape though, SHOULD be a criminal offense, but is sadly not. Now if Malini and Aditya's marriage is valid, the legal loophole will probably not hold Malini guilty since she technically is Adi's spouse, and this falls under the purview of marital relations. If the marriage is not valid, I am not sure what the offence is in that case.
(Pls note that I am no legal eagle, all this is courtesy google......so there is very likely to be inaccurate)
3. Imlie-Malini comparison:
Sure, Malini and Imlie are incomparable.
Malini took her under her wing when Imlie stayed at the Tripathi's. Encouraged her studies. During ALL this time, only Imlie and Aditya knew the truth but betrayed her emotions, care. Not just her, they betrayed 2 families.
Tripathi's and Dev (he is guilty of adultery himself) are nothing short of hypocrites. How else do you explain that Rupi and Nishant showed no empathy or support towards Malini and never confronted Aditya.
On the other hand, when Imlie knew of Malini's intentions, she asked for Malini to be sent to the Chaturvedi's. So, she was insecure of her souring relations and being manipulated, right? What happened when Malini and Aditya were married and Imlie was known to everyone as a "maid" at their house? May be right from the beginning, (i guess as initially suggested by Anu Chaturvedi initially) Malini should have asked for Imlie to be admitted to the college hostel. This would have been good both for Malini's relations and for Imlie's career.
There would have been no drama if everything had been done "correctly". So there comes the point about the creative license we talked about initially. But again, to attach some sense to all that is happening, Imlie and Aditya were basically living in denial of their marriage, and initially, Aditya was quite committed to Malini and their marriage. But circumstances and situations kept happening (of course all contrivances from the writers, but obviously, this is all fictional!!!!), that basically forced both of them to confront their own feelings for each other. I thought the scene when Aditya finally confesses to Malini about his relationship with Imlie was very beautifully and well done. GM and Mayuri had acted really well in that scene, with Mayuri transitioning from shock to grief to defeated acceptance very nicely. Also, in that whole sequence, one scene that really stood out to me is when they reach home and Malini asks Aditya of Imlie's and his physical relationship, whether they had been intimate and Adi's answer. The scene was very poignantly done, I thought, and sought to provide some closure to everyone that this was really about intense feelings of love and respect and nothing else. Gashmeer's execution of the scene and the dialog "you don't have to say sorry" when Malini apologizes for asking a deeply personal question was so beautifully done, and is a scene I go back and watch every now and then because of Gashmeer's fabulous acting (and of course his extremely good looks!!!!). At various points in time, throughout.. there seemed to be a time when everyone needed to accept what they were feeling for the other person. First Adi accepted that he loved Imlie, next Imlie needed the time to accept she loved Adi too, and to get over the guilt of betraying Malini and next, for them to allow Malini the time to get over Adi, and hence Imlie's acceptance at having Malini stay at the T house. Anu C should have stayed out and let the 3 of them sort out their issues. She is a wronged woman, no doubt. But the decibel level and her general characterization right since the start made her thoroughly unlikeable from the beginning.
Malini wanted Imlie to get justice thinking she was a victim. She also got the divorce proceedings started thinking Aditya fell out of love.
(At this point, the makers realised that a parallel will become holier than the leads and she will become more popular and to retain the leads' interest, they made a 180 degree turn on Malini.)
Malini turned evil not because Aditya and Imlie fell in love. She turned evil due to the betrayal of Imlie who took her relation further right under her nose and due to her 7 year old relationship which everyone (including Aditya) knew as "love". She brought out the truth of Dev-Mithi and how her mothering is suffering a betrayal from so many years.
How Malini can love a person like Aditya is something I guess none can explain.
Of course, Malini's turning out negative was unavoidable for the story to move forward. That aside, I don't understand why she (and you) is according all the blame to Imlie alone, when there were 2 people that were involved in the betrayal. While you are empathizing with Anu (as you should), why is Mithi not a victim? She was lied to, slept with, left alone with child in a very conservative society, and somehow she is only directing all her vitriol towards Mithi and Imlie and wants to have a child with Aditya?!
4. Aditya-Malini divorce:
Aditya treated his marriage as a stop-gap arrangement or what? He did not intend to free Malini, he only freed himself. The divorce was initiated by Malini. Aditya did not even have it in him to accept his relation with Imlie infront of everyone after his so called "realization".
Initially, Adi did not accept his marriage to Imlie. Of course, he wanted to free Malini once he realized his feelings for Imlie. It started out as a divorce with mutual consent, which Malini kept stalling because she obviously did not want to let go of Aditya. Adi did not make any judgement of Malini when she said she was in love with someone named Kunal (it may have been convenience, yes), and the stalling was in an attempt to have Imlie also on board. If Imlie was not ready, he could not just go and tell everyone in his family that she was his wife. And of course, they needed to keep it that way to show something as dramatic as the table tod pheres he took when he did tell his family that he was Imlie's husband and openly declared his love for Imlie.
Regardless, I cannot understand how we can justify what Imlie-Aditya did, hiding their marriage, going ahead in their relation while being wedded to someone else. Even after that, they did not confess to Malini and the families. The truth was brought out by Anu Chaturvedi. It is called adultery and that is punishable too. Both of them (Aditya and Imlie) are equally responsible.
Everything is fair in daily soap land :-) As long as this is not happening in someone's true life, I think we can allow some slip ups and fantasize about 2 people as mismatched as Imlie and Aditya enjoying some romantic moments! Again, Adi and Imlie did not commit adultery.
Anu, I hated her characterization in overusing naukrani and haughtiness, which allowed for none of us to feel any empathy or sympathy with her. I am not sure of exactly how much time passed between when he realized his feelings for Imlie and tellng Malini... but looking at their timeline now, it doesn't seem like they kept it hidden for too long!!
I rest my case🙂.
My responses in purple. It's not like we are discussing factual peer-reviewed science articles or serious things like whether the Covid vaccine will turn you magnetic. So we're obviously free to have our own interpretations of each character and it is obviously going to be highly subjective based on what/whom we like in the show!!!
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