I have been meaning to reply since long time but finally here goes!
Jeevika has started to face lot of criticism since the commencement of Virman track; while many including myself have written posts supporting Jeevika and have attempted to present Jeevika's side of the story in a positive light, your post goes a step beyond that and gives great insight to the sisters relationship. You have raised some excellent points and I am replying to your posts elaborating and referencing those points.
1) Confidence building: Very true; although there has not been direct evidence illustrating the fact that Jeevika instills confidence and optimism, but one can certainly draw inferences from the subtle messages shown from sister's conversations. Manvi, as person herself is very confident and positive, but again all of that derives from the fact that she is no worry over her head and she is well aware of the fact that whatever she does, her sister is there for her. Her sister's support is everything for her as Jeevika enacts the role of her friend, sister, mother, father, brother, everything! Manvi has not experienced any hardships whereas Jeevika has that experience herself, thus, she ensures that her little sister does not go through any emotional turmoil as such. That glass scene for instance is a great example where Jeevika indirectly conveys that she will eliminate all the problems coming in the way of Manvi and be there for her. So, with that kind of support system, it is no doubt that Manvi lives her life the way she is living it right now.
2) Blind support/love: Like you mentioned, being sisters or friends with someone does not guarantee one an automatic approval for everything; similarly Jeevika acts weighing the pros and cons, ensuring what is right for her sister and what can be harmful for her. We have seen Jeevika pointing out Manvi's mistakes many times which proves that she is not at all being biased towards Manvi when it comes to pointing out her mistakes. Ex: When Manvi and Virat left home on new years' eve, Manvi's involvement with Inder Chachu's case scenario. Jeevika was very disappointed at Manvi and she made that very clear to Manvi as well; although Manvi had realized her mistake after police was involved in that scene, but it made a deeper impact on her when Jeevika rebuked her for her silly act. During the scenario of Inder Chachu's scene, Jeevika did the same thing and told Manvi not to interfere with her in-laws' matters that would result in any serious consequences for both Manvi and herself. (I am not gonna prove the point that Jeevika was right or wrong telling Manvi to leave as that is another topic itself and I have made various points supportingJeevika).
3) Acceptance of Virman: Well again, Jeevika's reluctance to accept the Virat and Manvi as a couple derives from many facts. Jeevika's only concern is to protect her sister; more than anything it is hard for to accept Manvi being old enough to be in a relationship and that she is not ready at all to share her with someone else. For instance, Viren's thinking that there is something cooking between Virat and Manvi only came to be when he saw them being together, sharing those friendly moments like Virat feeding pizza to Manvi, and many other scenes like that! So, if Viren can pick on those things (he is actually using it for positive purposes), it is possible for someone else to see those similar things but view in a different light. *Remember that scene where Virat was grabbing laptop from Manvi and Swamini Bhua saw them in a slightly not so appealing position* So, looking at Jeeevika's perspective, I felt that she was right mentioning all those things to Manvi- She was right saying that she cannot tell this to Virat but she has right over Manvi to tell her all these things so they can maintain distance where their friendship remains within certain boundaries. Personally, I can relate to this very well as I have a Jiju too who has a younger brother and my mother had mentioned similar things to me in a subtle way that it is essential to main distance especially when both (girl's sister and boy's brother- in this case Virat and Manvi) are adults!!
There is way more to this situation than what it is being perceived as; like you mentioned Jeevika being a brother instead and then her actions would seem justified all of a sudden- hypocrisy at its peak? With reference to bhabhi-devar angle of this scenario, again Jeevika has more of a right over Manvi than Virat; she cannot simply support Virat and plant the similar seed in Manvi's head telling her that she is obligated to love Virat because she is telling her to do so (because we know Manvi cannot refuse to Jeevika) and that by doing so, she would be doing favour to her in-laws. Jeevika reacted more passively hearing Virat leaving for Rishiskesh because the news came from Swamin and we are all aware of the tone of that news; therefore, Jeevika's concern is not to stop Virman from being in a relationship, but to disprove Swamini's allegation that Manvi is the reason behind Virat and Maya's breakup. If this whole Maya sceneario had not occurred, perhaps then the situation would have been different!
Few people mentioned Jeevika sharing a great bonding with Virat and that she should have approached Virat directly and conversed about his feelings for Manvi- BUT, then again does that not apply to Virat either? He could have approached Jeevika as well, but it all comes down to the fact that it is not an issue between Jeevika and Virat at all! Remember last Monday's episode where Jeevika talks to Manvi about Virat and Manvi retorts back saying everything out loud on purpose for Virat to hear- Notice Jeevika's confused reaction. Jeevika had only told Manvi to stay away or maintain distance from Virat as people can misunderstand hers and Virat's closeness to something much more than it is, BUT Manvi's reasoning were totally different to what Jeevika had told her- that confused look was vivid on Jeevika's face as if she was trying to connect her statement to what Manvi just blurted out! Jeevika had never mentioned reasons like Virat being irresponsible etc to clarify her stand against this potential 'rishta' of Virat and Manvi; therefore, when Manvi went on different tangent, Jeevika was left confused and to some extent even Manvi knows what she said was not true about Virat!
This show is slated to be about sisters and their extra-ordinary relationship- so I see no reason as to why people are finding their relationship to be something as unrealistic and impossible!!! Yes, they are OTT- but that is what makes this show unique, isn't it? And as for Jeevika and Manvi- they are 2 sides of one coin and it is impossible to have Jeevika without Manvi and Manvi without Jeevika!
After writing this bizzare post, I don't even know if all of that made any sense but again thanks for an awesome post and I had to reply :)
Anupamaa
