Natasha isn't a weak character!

I don't know who needs to read this but I'm just gonna leave it here

Natasha isn't a weak character.

For a while now, I have been wondering about this new trend on ITV of the bahu that gives back as good as she gets it. Does she speak to our fantasy of telling off that annoying fufa or mami who has always pestered us and misbehaved with us using their age as a shield? Do we really believe that shouting at people can make them see sense?

The funny thing is that these leads are inadvertently dependent on someone for basic sustenance. They need to be protected, given shelter and food. They need someone to take care of them and yet they are the ones giving people lectures about independence and morality.

All our lives we have learnt however that actions mean more than words, haven't we? So why do we hail these ITV fls who are all bark and no bite?

Perhaps because it's easy and quick. We don't have to put in the grind. We don't have to invest the time in watching someone's journey. In a world where one is given less than a minute to make their point or they’d be swiped off the screen, the slow burn of a romance, the growth of a character in increments make us impatient. We have been trained to form opinions on the basis of a single statement, to jump to conclusions, to pass judgements and put people in neat little categories. We have been trained to ignore nuances, to disregard any contradiction that doesn't sit right with the image we have formed of people in our heads.

What I want to get at by this long winded introduction is that Natasha is neither weak nor a doormat even though the current ITV trend will have you believe otherwise.

Time and again, she has proven that she is a very strong girl and can fight her own battles. She doesn't need a man or anyone else to save her. This Princess can save herself. 

She has always stood up for what is right and just. Or have we forgotten her first confrontation with Dhawal and the Makwanas?? I know the next thing people will say is that she wasn't a doormat then, she is one now.

Well, no. The reason that she laid into the Makwanas so hard then was because she was done with Dhawal at that time. She thought he was as bad as the rest of the Makwanas and if she never saw him again in her life, it'd be too soon.

So what's changed now? A simple thing. She knows Dhawal loves her, perhaps more than anyone he has ever loved in his life. She knows he'll stand up to anyone for her. He'll do anything to uphold her honour. And we should remember that until she wasn't sure of this fact, she didn't tell him she loves him too.

The naysayers will say that Dhawal apologised to Amba so his stand in the temple means nothing. But he didn't apologize for whatever he said? The entire apology conveyed that I'm only saying sorry because you're my mother. He doesn't want to lose her, doesn't want to walk out of his family. There could be a million reasons for that but one reason is that Natasha wouldn't want that for him. She did so much to reunite him with his family. Why would he undo all of that work on her part?

Natasha is not a Makwana apologist. She has never denied that they have done her wrong. But the fact of the matter remains that she considers them as her family. She cannot remain a bystander during their time of trouble because it isn't just Amba and Amrish who are suffering, it's the rest of them as well. The Bhabhis who love her and help her by exercising whatever little agency they have available to them. Chirag who treats her like his little sister. Golu, who is innocent in all this. (Bhaven is irrelevant here, as we all know) 

It takes immense strength to stand against your own family for someone, especially when that someone has wronged you. But that is Natasha’s core trait. She has never been a ‘tit for tat’ kinda person. She believes in forgiveness. She once told Dhawal, “Pandya hu na maaf karne ka riwaz hai hamare yahan.”

She recognises that Cheeku’s revenge is wrong. He acquired Amrish's property by committing fraud. And it doesn't matter how justified his revenge seems, it is an unlawful thing. She wants him to return whatever he wrongfully acquired to its rightful owners. How is that a weakness on her part? How is having moral clarity, having ethics wrong?

And she has forgiven Cheeku. It's not like she is mad at him. She told Cheeku in a civil manner to return those papers, pleaded with him and even screamed at him but he wouldn’t listen. That’s the whole reason why she has resorted to lying. She is super guilty about it too, because at the end of the day, she loves her brother dearly.

Also she isn’t doing this for Amrish. She is doing it because what Cheeku is doing doesn’t sit in the set of ethics and principles she has grown up with. Another reason she has for doing all this is what she told Shashank. “In hallaton mein meri aur Dhawal ki shaadi hone nahi denge gharwale.”

She loves Dhawal and if inconvenience is caused to him because of some wrongdoing she will take the steering wheel.

Secondly, misbehaving is not the only way to retaliate. In fact the beauty of Natasha's character is that she doesn't waste her energy with people who are beyond saving. She demonstrated this during the clinic opening track. When Amba started her melodrama, she turned to the person who actually has power in Makwana House and who she thinks is capable of change (whether she is right about it or not, remains to be seen). She said to Amrish that whatever he decides shall happen, thereby showing Amba her importance of lack thereof in a very subtle way.

And she did this, when she worships her mother figures. She literally started loving the PS that she had hated all her life after one conversation with Rishita and Dhara’s ghosts where they explained to her how important PS is to them.

Also, when she was character assassinated at the temple by Amba, she tried to explain to her but Amba didn’t let her speak by involving the crowd and then Dhawal spoke up, and I think it is enough for one of them to stand up for what is right. Both of them don't have to say the same things and do unnecessarily tamasha. It just makes the point redundant and eats the screen time. 

And after Dhawal calmed down, she did give it back to them by saying, “In logon se, inki wahiyaat soch se mujhe fark nahi padta. Mujhe sirf farak padta hai ki tum mere baare mein kya sochte ho.”

Natasha embodies a modern girl who doesn't care about the society so long as the people she loves aren't on the wrong path. And frankly, that is what it should be like.

Unless of course, you prefer to have the makers gaslight you by having every member of the ML’s family be vile to the FL and then her speaking up, saying things just to give that momentary satisfaction while she still lives on in that house, coz that doesn't diminish her self respect at all, does it?🙄 and finally turning into that breed of FL who finds an achha aadmi and gives lectures to anyone who even sneezes in her direction. If so, kudos to you! Best of luck. But I'd like to break this fact to you, very gently, that this show isn't the one for you then!

Peace ✌🏾✌🏾

Natasha is a practical and down to earth person. She has solution for all problems. Natasha also has a tremendous convincing power that she made him agree that Pranali can start her clinic.