I won’t say I’m in the minority…because I’ve talked to others who have similar views…I just think those that have different views from this chat (or x) in particular are silent…because there is no point to get into a space that looks difficult to enter. But I couldn’t help but want to share my thoughts today. So, Here are my thought.
1. I like Jhanak and Vihaan actually. If we are being honest, their format is actually the basic template for couple characters in any show. I believe that audience won’t find it hard to migrate…especially when people start comparing Bose house to this one…and there is the baby too..plus I don’t believe Vihaan is bad at all. I think that he has experienced loss is a great complement to Jhanak who has similar experiences.
2. There is the issue of sidelining Ani….which isn’t necessarily true. I feel like makers are setting it up to be two-couple. And I feel like this doesn’t erase that the title of this show is Jhanak. It enhances it….its not Ani and Jhanak…it’s Jhanak meeting people along the way in her life, important or not. Aniruddh would always be important to her as he was her first love - his character is allowed to be someone she can recall fondly as she grows. And Jhanak is just 21, meaning there are years ahead of her.
3. Arshi. Arshi has been the primary obstacle between Ani and Jhanak….the character has been complex because she is right in some places and wrong in others - just like the two leads are. None has not done something that is not morally ambiguous and someone looking in could question - but the main gripe people have with arshi is her actions to Ani that led to her pregnancy and to me, her inability to follow through with good decisions. In my opinion, Arshi is someone who seeks validation from others and so she is easily prodded by her mom and she also doesn’t seem to have an inherent self of stability or order except from Ani. There was no way she was going to be the mature person who was going to let go of Ani easily…and when it seemed like she had no choice but to leave, her pregnancy brought her back. Despite saying she wanted revenge, she switched immediately after the marriage. That will be discussed below.
4. It is the honest truth that whether you agree with anyone’s character or not, to say Arshi doesn’t love Ani isn’t true. You can say she is not the one he wants to love him. You can say she isn’t loving right. You can’t say there is no love from her side and neither can you say there WAS no love from ani’s side as the show established. What this means is that rekindling from both isn’t impossible because there was a time of earth it was both ways for eight years - which is A LONG time. When I watched Arshi’s scene at the party last night, I couldn’t stomach it. It felt too strange and greasy and in my head, I said she is doing something useless again. But when I saw her scene with shristi and Tanuja, I felt much better. As a viewer, I felt arshi had lost potential by not leaving ani and listening to her mother. So whatever the future is, it felt better to see her make a good decision and not some useless drama.
5. It seems they want to switch Arshi and her reason is sound. She is having a kid and she might be thinking a lot, even if not to really be good, but just at least to be good in her child’s eyes. If Arshi can take it a step further and tell Ani what she did and talk with him, in my opinion, it doesn’t matter if he goes to Jhanak and she leaves or whatever, for some reason, Arshi is not going to end up badly even if she is alone.
6. The real villain to me is Shristi (she was a bad mom to both and is not good) as well as concepts of class and ‘what it means to be good’. If ITV were realistic, this show would have us end with some philosophical understanding that people make mistakes, people change, people meet and separate. I would wish that arshi could be placed as a tool to spear Shristi’s side because when she finally turns against her (like Ani had wished), Shristi would finally lose everything. It would be cool to see Arshi work with Jhanak to expose her - because not even arshi is safe from her and if makers keep arshi with this sort of awareness, the idealized ‘version of love’ between ani and Jhanak is going to keep losing staying power.
6. It might hit hard but in my opinion, Aniruddh is very predictable. He so obviously has a type he caters too. He was with arshi for 8 years and knowing her, he loved her regardless and must have put up with her biases because of his emotions. Note that his reservations about her didn’t stop him from dating her, buying a ring and kneeling to propose (I assume he’s the one that did lol). Then he met Jhanak and it was like everything changed. But everything didn’t….he just met someone who had values he had that arshi didn’t have, but that didn’t mean he had to love her. The key was that Arshi seemed to amplify her biases with Jhanak around and even though in my opinion, Aniruddh’s deceit came through here, it’s fact that we can assume that if arshi had acted the opposite of what she did from the start, Ani wouldn’t have liked Jhanak. That’s what the show has established. It’s not that Ani didn’t love Arshi, it’s that her actions pushed him away. If this same Arshi starts doing the right things with a baby on the way, I’m sorry to say but Aniruddh doesn’t cut me as the guy that wouldn’t grow into happiness over time. That’s why I have been starting to think of the title ‘Jhanak’ more often these days and how makers meant it when they said it was about her and her journey to dance rulership…Ani, arshi, Appu, shristi, viaan, bose house…in the end, they are all people she met on the way and that made her become a better person than she was, whether through the joy or trials they gave her
7. Then again, I could be doing too much. This is ITV and it’s common for makers (and audience) to rush and throw deep themes for something surface level. If everyone was calm and makers were credible, it would be simple. For example, I would like arshi to be punished after birth. I would like shristi to frame her for something (in order not to be in jail) or at least promise to help her out if she takes blame only to blame her in public…I’m here for punishment scenes, I’m here for discussions between ani and arshi and Jhanak and vihaan….i don’t even dig trp well but I’m telling you trp would be crazy…can you imagine what amazing writing that would look like…gosh im wishing too much now…but oh well I just wanted to write.
I’m a writer and there was a time I used to love Runak, I even wrote fanfiction of them but for some reason, as time went the story kept making the leads look so bad. At one point, I wondered if we would just discover that Jhanak was intentionally acting this way and I was frustrated with Arshi’s stupid actions as well as Aniruddh’s inability to reflect on his own person. The only person I even liked was shristi because she was bad and she was solidly bad. Because I write, I can’t handle badly written characters. There was only so much the good looks of Aniruddh and jhanak could do for me (And as hard it might be to some of you to hear, the truth is that Arshi is also attractive and at least, if she doesn’t say something stupid, she doesn’t look bad beside Ani. Therefore, despite anyone’s feelings, that pair doesn’t feel hard on the eyes either in the looks department. And I don’t even think vihaan is unattractive, so to me, all the four I have my eyes on look good in my eyes).
Now, I finally saw the promos and returned, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for whether this would be the usual or not.
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