Hello everyone...while I know no one is really raving about yesterday's episode but no one is really ranting about it either...so forgive me but I am going to rant because I am very upset with it and want to share my frustration with all of you.
See, I find it very problematic that Anant actively blamed Navya to save himself from BD's anger. It is one thing to lie so that something that you believe is right and good can happen and it is another thing to lie to put someone else on the firing line to protect yourself. The first according to me is indicative of a strong moral fibre and the second the exact opposite. Of course, the best thing is to always tell the truth but really speaking you can only follow this edict, especially with authority figures when you feel that there is even a small chance that they will hear you out and understand your point of view.
Whenever Navya is faced with a situation where she wishes/needs to do something that she knows her parents/elders will disapprove of, she chooses to approach them with her ideas and convince them to give her permission. Whether, it is her relationship with Anant or her desire to take up a job. Of course, if parents still don't grant permission, her instinct is to obey them irrespective of the personal costs to her. For instance, promising to break up with Anant after the Kanpur fiasco which too I find very problematic but I shall save that for another rant.
Whenever Anant is faced with a similar situation, in recent episodes, he is shown to resort to deceit and lying with his family. However it did not start off like that. In the initial episodes, because Anant was shown as broadly agreeing with his family on their way of life and ideas, he had no need to lie and whatever disagreement he had, he chose to voice. So when Nimi was forcibly engaged, he spoke up against it and wanted to approach Baba to convince him about it. When he wanted to go for the picnic, he chose to approach his family to get permission, even encouraged Navya to do the same. When he finally made up his mind that he did not want to go through with the engagement with Sahgun, his instinct was to approach his family and refuse. In Kanpur, when his relationship with Navya was discovered, he owned upto it in front of everyone. And since then, he has always protected Navya and taken responsibility for all mistakes – when his family was calling Navya names in Kanpur, or when Deepak was insulted or when they were discovered on the road after Ranbir and he played a trick on Navya and her friends or when Deepak discovered the tricks played to postpone the marriage or when his lie about Navya's job was caught.
I feel that his experience in trying to persuade his family to call off his engagement with Shagun convinced him of the futility of such efforts. I remember Baba very clearly told him that there was no middle path – there was a right way which was the traditional way and a wrong way which was the modern way and there was no point in trying to convince him otherwise. He got a similar response when he tried to argue that Navya should be allowed to take up a job and that girls were now considered equal to boys. He was shut up by Baba who said that he should focus on learning the family business rather than trying to change the world.
But Anant was convinced of the rightness of his actions – he could see no wrong in his relationship with Navya, could see that the way his family was pressurising Navya's family regarding the marriage was wrong and could see no wrong in Navya taking up a job to support her father. So he chose deceit to enable what was right and good to happen. He did not have any other option because of the autocratic and unreasonable nature of his family. He knew that there was no point in approaching them with his views. He would not be heard and definitely would not be understood. In fact, in this he displayed courage of conviction that Navya lacked. She was willing to give up the relationship because her parents were unhappy with it but he was willing to stand up for what he thought was right.
And that I thought was the point of the serial – what happens when parents/families are autocratic (the Bajpais) versus when the family environment is understanding and are willing to trust their children (the Mishras)
Against this context, how do we understand yesterday's episode, when Anant blames Navya for something in which he participated equally and actively lies to protect himself. This is when in all previous episodes, he is always shown as tongue tied whenever caught doing something his family considers wrong with Mohan and sometimes Nimi saving him and making his excuses. It is completely inconsistent with the portrayal of his character till date. I wonder what the CVs were thinking.
We all love our characters to have shades of grey but CVs this was a black mark. You do not rat on a friend with your family or otherwise. You do not blame them but take the blame to protect them and defend them. It is a cardinal rule of friendship. I know Navya will forgive Anant but how will us fans love him?
I hope this is not an attempt to highlight Navya's strength of character. If so, it is very simplistic and really not required. This not a story about how an honest middle class girl reforms a spoilt rich boy and let us not try to change the story to that. That would be so disappointing and clichd.
CVs, Anantika, Producers...We expect more from you. You have given us a fantastic story till date that takes on life's complexities – the struggle between modernity and tradition, the young and the old and social change. Let us stay with this.
Please don't consider me presumptuous. I have taken time out to write out this long post because I am huge fan of your work and only wish you more success.
Health and Fitness
Seher Hone Ko Hai
