100% agree with everything you said, especially about Neil's character.
I'm not even gonna go off about him again 'cause I already made a big-a** separate thread on why he isn't a green flag-so yeah, fully agree there.
But, this whole show feels like it's written by some bipolar person and that bipolar person is Leena Mata herself. Like Rutu was the only sane man in this circus, and they ruined him too-made him a full-blown villain for what? and every character got meh energy.
And the fact that Teju got more hate than Neil for all his creepy behavior? Wild. I literally called it out here-dude was being mad disrespectful to Juhi but everyone was blaming Juhi for not backing off the marriage?? Saying Neil was not "forcing" her never disrespect Juhi? What do you call him pulling up at her house just to say "I don't love you, f*** off, I'm gonna love Teju" every 3rd scene? Or him going to meet Teju behind her back and then telling his fiancée "Yeah I went to meet your sister." Like he's not only disrespecting Juhi, he's violating basic decency. Even then when Juhi don't backout he in hospital says "I'll always love Teju, never you" and people go "aww he's just being honest." Nah, he's being a prick.
Even Teju's character is mad problematic. Like girl fell for Rutu in two meetings, and then Neil fell in love with her at first glance too?? Where's the build-up? Where's the spark? Teju asked Rutu to marry her after barely two meeting. And Rutu didn't even reject her-he just said he wanted to focus on his career and wanted to help her grow her career too, push her to stand up to her toxic fam. But what does Teju do? She gets all passive-aggressive with him.
Then Neil's mom-she's been holding a grudge since some man rejected her 30+ years ago and made it her life mission to mentally torture his daughter.
Neil's sister Manjari-who was introduced as blunt, truth-speaking, victim of forced marriage, When Teju explains what Neil did, how he disrespected her, and why she doesn't want this marriage. But Manjari becomes passive-aggressive and starts lecturing her to "accept Neil as her husband." HUH?? Wasn't SHE out of all people should get her trauma. Teju literally lost her right to consent. Her agency was snatched away by her family and Neil who married her against her will after multiple pleadings.
Then at party scene-Teju standing up, exposing Neil in front of guests, saying how much she hates him.👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻. But like TWO HOURS LATER, Neil's family is teasing him about his suhaag raat??? "Ohh vahini is waiting for you, enjoy"?? ENJOY WHAT? She just said she hates him and why y'all planning honeymoon jokes? It's giving tone deaf.
No wonder audience dipped. Loyal viewers out. The PH pissed off the whole ghum base, They ended Ishvi's prematurely just 'cause they didn't want to pay actors. They did the same with Saraj. How many times will you pull this leap-and-replace stunt before people stop trusting you?
After removing Shakti, Saraj actually ran, so the ph got overconfident. Thought they were Shahi 2.0 and audience would eat whatever they serve. They didn't.
Shahi wasn't that much of an idiot-he knew his serials were dog pile garbage but at least he never disrespected the legacy. Every gen leap would start with some dramatic FL rajkumari entry on a boat with flowers, and he'd throw in gen 1, 2, 3, 4 FLs together for the hype and people would eat it up. Now gen 5 is coming with Maahira from Abhimaan, I can already see it. And you know what? Sure, he's not pulling 3.5 trp like before, but he ain't losing money like Ghum ph did.
Edited by Randomlurker - 3 months ago