I had quit watching the show before the Raghav-renounces-illegal-business track, but I decided to watch it now. It's not surprising that my story, with Chapter One written before August 4, is fundamentally different from the track that aired from September 7 to October 1. (Pallavi to Sharada on September 20: "If I'm the reason that Raghav goes to jail, he'll never understand what I'm saying; his ego and fury will never let him listen.") Nevertheless, I am really disappointed that those who created the characters of Pallavi and Raghav hobbled their own story in so many ways:
Whitewashing Pallavi and Raghav. Why did this track need to begin with Pallavi blindly trusting Raghav, who had played every illegal trick to torment her, and saying that she herself might slip up, but Raghav would never do anything wrong? It was right after Raghav, the self-declared Don of Hyderabad, had attempted to murder Mandar. Surely Pallavi wouldn't have forgotten that she had demanded Raghav's arrest as the head of the smuggling racket (her words) for which Nikhil was jailed! Over a week into the track, the creatives retconned a scene for Pallavi to tell Raghav that she doesn't care about his past crimes, only that he shouldn't continue - but how did Pallavi decide that Raghav shouldn't answer for his crimes? The track should have begun with Pallavi trying to reconcile her newfound love for Raghav with her awareness that he is a hardened criminal.
Meanwhile, Raghav was given such contrived dialogues to make him a benevolent angel: Raghav rattled off a list of benefits that his servants enjoyed, then gave the necklace thief money to support his proverbial aging parents; Raghav valued money above morals, but would rather have lost diamonds than lose one of the boys who worked for him; Raghav told Abhishek to put safety first, and tried to call off the fatal mission - what convenient timing! Being pre-emptively exonerated for the collateral damage, Raghav never got to question his principles and motives; he just reacted to Pallavi's critical condition by getting rid of his ill-gotten diamonds while covering up his crimes, and keeping Pallavi a fugitive from the law.
Incidentally, the writers made Farhad stupid - talking about the register of customs evasion where Sunny could overhear him, and later firing a bullet into the wall to scare Sunny, which the whole neighbourhood would hear. And Sunny stupidly stole the diamonds from Pallavi's shop, only to give them back to Pallavi, instead of blackmailing Raghav for a share of his property! And Jaya stupidly said that she wasn't on speaking terms with Raghav for years because he does bad things, but his heart is pure, all in one breath! This was in contrast to Raghav, whose smartness was praised for hiding behind a complex network of subcontractors - except that Raghav could meet Abhishek face-to-face and try to rescue him through Farhad, and Raghav suddenly decided, "My work, my risk," when he picked up his own diamonds, and never mind how quickly Pallavi had connected Nikhil's Harish to Raghav's Harish!
Raghav being cold to Pallavi. It can be dramatic when one spouse is angry at the other, but when a couple disagrees about principles, it's more dramatic that they have tender feelings for each other. Raghav should have felt torn between his desire to satisfy Pallavi and his own insatiable greed. Instead, we got Raghav shouting that he can do business however he wants, a retconned scene of Raghav casually promising Pallavi that he would do everything legally, and not meaning it at all, and a lot of Raghav getting falling-down-drunk (five fictional days in a row!) so that he and Pallavi couldn't talk quietly and remember why they're together. Drunk scenes should be used sparingly, and not just to prolong conflict. It was too imbalanced that Pallavi had to deal with Raghav's whisky-and-sweat stinky body falling on her, his grabbing her roughly, and his cruel words, on top of her own quandary.
Raghav's face was impassive when Pallavi asked him to help find answers about Abhishek, and reminded him of his promise to stop evading customs duties. Raghav did say to himself that he was disgusting, but this time Luṅgīvālā Raghav (supposedly his conscience) selfishly warned him to go on lying, or Pallavi would leave him! Raghav demanded to know why Pallavi wanted him to be moral, and not Mandar or Vijay, as if Pallavi shouldn't want to be proud of her life partner! Mostly, Raghav in this track felt self-pity, not awareness that he was making Pallavi miserable. And just like the Vijay-thinks-Raghav-sent-him-to-jail track, the Kirti-loves-Sunny subplot, the Pallavi-babysits-Mandar track, and the why-isn't-Mandar-in-jail-yet track, this track was about Raghav feeling betrayed by Pallavi and Pallavi proclaiming her loyalty to Raghav only.
Pallavi's behaviour was also selfish (for Raghav): she kept quiet about Raghav's crimes, gave the diamonds back to Raghav, and mostly felt bad that Raghav made a false promise to her, not that he was cheating honest taxpayers. Keeping her income and expenses separate from his was a laborious way to add conflict to their marriage, not to resolve their disagreement. When the traitor policeman Nitin Reddy informed Pallavi that Laxmi was about to catch Raghav in the act of smuggling, Pallavi chose to help Raghav escape, and thus became an accomplice to Raghav's crime. Pallavi who had reported Nikhil for cheating on an exam once, getting him suspended from college for a month, didn't have the courage of her convictions to let Raghav be arrested for a crime that he committed routinely.
Gratuitous gory scenes. What was accomplished by splattering Abhishek's blood on Pallavi? It wasn't symbolic. There was absolutely no need for Abhishek to be shot dead, except to make Laxmi the villain and exonerate Raghav. If the creatives wanted Raghav to feel guilty that someone died for his business, why not write that when Abhishek was caught, he had a heart attack? Raghav, who suffers from panic attacks, would have felt guilty for making a boy feel that kind of panic. Why not draw a parallel between Raghav getting rich off the risks taken by teenage boys and Krishna Rao leaving teenage Raghav to face the mob?
If Raghav truly loved Pallavi, if he believed in her love for him at all, then the idea that Pallavi had informed Laxmi of his crimes would have made Raghav think that Pallavi made a painful decision because this issue is important to her. And when Pallavi told Raghav to get away before Laxmi could catch him, Raghav should have recognized that loving him had made Pallavi a criminal too, and this was unnatural and shameful for her. Instead, Raghav demanded to know if Pallavi had informed Laxmi of his picking up the diamonds, and Raghav accused Pallavi of acting like she would rescue him, just to lure him into a trap. With those dialogues, this couple's romantic credibility took a nosedive.
The same creative team that tried to sell Raghav-will-murder-Mandar-and-go-to-prison as proof of his self-sacrificing love for Pallavi decided that now Raghav wouldn't simply surrender to Laxmi for the sake of Pallavi's safety and freedom. No, Raghav couldn't take responsibility for his crimes to protect Pallavi's moral integrity; that would actually be romantic. Just so that Laxmi could be the villain and shed Pallavi's blood, the creatives made Raghav take Pallavi on the run, stupidly, even after Laxmi warned that she would shoot. "Laxmi ko jo karanā hai, kare!" Raghav said, recklessly endangering them both, and, "Pallavi, vo kuch nahī karegā, calo!"
When Pallavi needed emergency surgery, instead of letting the police take Pallavi to a hospital, Raghav took her home, trusting that Farhad could set up an operation theatre and find a surgeon and team instantly. There was no one to apply pressure to Pallavi's wound while Raghav drove the car; in the real world, Pallavi would have bled to death just because Raghav refused help. How could the creatives imagine that Raghav would look heroic, fixating on impunity over Pallavi's life? How unfeeling Raghav looked, switching off his tears long enough to give attitude to Laxmi, in the ridiculous scene of Laxmi not arresting Raghav who had just fled in front of so many officer witnesses!
No payoff. Raghav and Pallavi didn't grow closer during this track. Instead of Raghav realizing that he doesn't have to cheat to be a success in Pallavi's eyes, and Pallavi learning more about what drives Raghav, the show argued awkward equations: Raghav smuggles = Abhishek gets killed, Raghav changing = the end for Raghav, Pallavi gets shot = Raghav offloads his duty-free diamonds, and Raghav drinks himself to death = Pallavi flatlines. And although Raghav gave up smuggling, he was still in control of the police department, i.e. still a criminal.
It was interesting that Raghav found this moral in the track: "My mistakes aren't only mine; my family will be punished for them too." I had Raghav thinking the converse of this idea in Chapter Two of my story: "Raghav would never abandon Pallavi and Arjun. Even if he alone paid for his sins, even if they were ashamed to acknowledge him, he would always love them and honour his responsibility to provide for them."
Bade Achche Lagte Hain Naya Season
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