Originally posted by: Alter_Eg0
Don't have much experience with ITV... but is the level of inconsistency in Jhanak's storytelling worse than other shows? I understand the need for intrigue to maintain the drama quotient, but here it feels like every time characters take a step forward in their journey—it’s quickly undone, reverting the characters to past behaviors essentially dragging them ten steps back.
Hi.. I don’t have that much experience of ITV shows ( in fact it’s probably only the 5th one that I am watching at length else I just give up a show in a half a month or two 😂😂) but relatively I have more experience than you I suppose, so I will offer this by way of explanation…
In my experience, Jhanak’s has the among the jerkiest story telling despite having a decently organic pathway until 200 odd episodes. It’s not that others don’t have inconsistencies but they are situational inconsistencies and far fetched drama quotient arising out of situations; the problem with Jhanak is the inconsistency is in the characterisation which is too noticeable. The other thing I note is the writer making too many expedient calls which they fail to justify in the narrative… No serial can do without expediency given the nature of the medium but in Jhanak you can sense the expediency in how the characterisation is stacked up. The aim is episode count but the extra episodes do nothing by way of furthering the story or building any sub plots… which in itself is not a surprise cos this story is a very linear plot… there are no sub plots worth exploring and there is nothing to justify this level of complexity beyond the love story The issue is simple… it’s not even a love triangle… in the way it is projected - it’s about the personality driven conflict. It’s about whether Jhanak can do anything to own the relationship publicly that she privately accepts, can Ani feel the intensity of the dilemma holding Jhanak back and can he do something about it? This to and fro of do you love? Or Gi back to Arshi is only about keeping the conflict at status quo.
For instance, while Ani’s indecisiveness or should I say a tendency to choose easier modes of combating a problem may be a trait that was very much illustrated in the narrative early on, but with the development of Ani’s arc in realisation of his love, the writer’s insistence on using that trait to provide vacuous reasoning for certain actions is very silly and expedient to say the least. Similarly, Jhanak’s ambivalence towards her bond with Ani had a very specific pathway in the earlier episodes but there was also noticeable development of her arc in the tumour and HA track.. To now regress that to the utterances of go back to Arshi etc is also a very silly way to continue status quo. Today they aren’t adversaries… they aren’t friends but their journey means there must be a way for more meaningful communication to be shown. Even keeping them at different ends, their conflict can be shown more imaginatively. Suppose I hypothetically accept that Ani and Arshi were married post aag… the conflict between them is actually more interesting cos it provides complexity to the situation. People who fall out of love and move on with new partners face some degree of complexity in dealing with the contours of their relationship with their partner and those challenges can be creatively shown but since the writer is saddling two boats ( She can’t show Ani Arshi as married but she she expects the audience to accept Arshi as the wife… pray tell me what is the audience supposed to do except blame all the three characters in different ways) the conflict looks absolutely muddled. If Arshi was a wife, Ani’s entreaties to move on in the relationship will look justified and organic - Kya main pehle insaan hoon jiske saath ye ho raha hain? makes complete sense.. But we are projecting the same thing but with semantics arranged in a way that “ Jo tumko ho pasand wohi baat kahenge” - the result of so much confusion and anger and issues with characterisation.
Sorry I don’t know if I answered your actual question… but I rambled on 😂😂😂
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