One thing that bothers me a lot when I watch old episodes is how they showed V to be extremely affected by his "relationship" with PP breaking.
Tbh as an audience, it was a nonexistent relationship. There really was nothing there. But they showed V not only make a huge promise in the flow of emotions but showed him to be SO affected by her.
Very long back, theres this scene where Sai is in the safehouse and she honestly and emotionally tells V over a phone call- that "i dont know ki aap ke ghar mein kaun kaun hai, but i only have my aaba. He has fulfilled every relationship in my life. He is my world and being away from him is like losing my world. And you won't understand that feeling'.
In response to that V says " I do know the pain of losing your world" as he supposedly reflects on his broken relationship with pp.
I found that comparison extremely jarring. Theres absolutely no comparison between a 2 day infatuation where they didn't know anything except each others name to the kind of pain Sai must feel to lose her ONLY family.
If he truly felt that deeply for pp, its also extremely jarring to then see him give up on that love for the sake of his brother not even considering how unfair it is to his brother who is now getting bound into a one- sided love marriage. He had hoped that pp would grow to love Sam back and things would be hunky dory but he was essentially allowing his brother to enter a marital relationship on the foundation of such a big lie.
Similarly in an angry outburst in initial days post marriage, V tells Sai she doesn't know what its like to lose the person one loves and that cringe pyaari-cheez reference regarding pp to Sai, in front of pp as he cruelly lashes out at Sai for the allegations leveled by Vitthal Maane causing problems at work.
And his behavior to Sai during the marriage ceremonies and right after where he is clearly thinking about pp or looking at her as he is doing the rituals -again very off putting to watch.
Because the whole point of the show is that pp was a mere infatuation whereas Sai is the one he has a divine/cosmic connection with- shes his soulmate, his better half. Thats why destiny has tied them together.
So if he felt and expressed SO much for a 2 day infatuation, then the level of angst at losing Sai seems very underwhelming- and really not as effective/ well portrayed by the actor or by the makers. The angst, the impact of losing Sai should be 100-1000 fold more right?!
But i don't think they have given us that.
Yes, they made him cry, made him look disheveled and angry but the angst, the pain of losing his wife- his Sai, the longing to be with her, the nostslgia and recalling only her at every instance- all those aspects were missing.
They made him talk to baby Sahas about Sai- but it was brief. The degree of guilt and regret he should have felt at not being there for Sai and not even letting her know- it didn't come through well enough. They tried to show it but it wasn't good enough.
They tried to insert scenes ike V mumbling Sais name when he got ill and was unconscious but it seemed really forced and was just not effective imo.
When I watch V as an audience- i often find myself doubting the sincerity of his so-called "deewanon waala pyaar" for Sai ( thats what he described to Sunny🙄)
Because i just dont see that much passion, longing, love etc in his demeanor.
Does he really love Sai. Or is this just something he has made himself believe because he has got attached to her over almost 2 years now and she has the tag of his wife. Is he merely habituated to her. Is he just grateful for all that shes done for his family in her own unconvential way. And does he really care about her or is it all just stemming from his obligation towards the promise made to her dead father.
Sai seems to be convinced that he does love her mainly because he made a lot of sacrifices for her, stood up for him against his family and was willing to risk his life for her safety in that jungle. Shes choosing to sideline the facts about Shruti-V getting emotional involved mainly because she is too guilt ridden. Thats why in KD when Shruti came back , Imon was clearly not cool with the behavior of Rono- shruti.
But to me, I'm not so sure about V's " love".... because the way they have portrayed V, he goes into this sacrificial/mahaan/self pity/self righteous mode for other women too. He made sacrifices, stood up against family and risked his life for Shruti/Sahas too because of promise made to Sada.
So what sets Sai apart?
what really is the difference between the various women in his life- to me it seems like the only difference is that Sai is the only one who has a spiritual and legal reason to be that important to him- spiritual because of the "sanctity" of marriage (debatable- I personally believe in sanctity of marriage but many people dont!) And because legally as his wife shes supposed to be his next of kin, the person who by association to him is 50% shareholder in everything that belongs to him.
But despite that at various points he prioritizes other women over her. And thats not comparable to Sai supposedly prioritizing his family members over him- because she is not picking them over him but choosing to help them FOR him- she only cares about them because they are important to him. She knows that ultimately V will be the one who is most thrilled by his family issues getting sorted. Its things he always wanted to rectify but couldn't speak about openly that she has taken the onus to fix. Whereas V is prioritizing others over Sai because he wants to.its about his feelings, his zimmedari, his guilt, his obligations, his compulsions.
So in order to really believe in V's love for Sai I personally would like to see scenes/plots where he clearly makes a distinction between Sai and others in his life. Where he genuinely regrets his poor choices - pertaining to his behavior with and for pp/shruti that have made Sai feel so insecure, hurt. Where he makes deliberate attempts to distance himself from pp and if Shruti ever comes back- from her too! (Hopefully she wont come back)
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