Originally posted by: jay_bpm
You know I said I might post a long reply to your question during weekend, well here I am. I was debating whether I should write or not, but even I am not satisfied with my previous answer.
So once again I am going to torture whoever comes and reads it; but blame Mages & d.padmini as they boosted my pseudo ego by calling me an expert.
You ask very interesting, intelligent and perhaps one of the hardest question. From my POV, we first need to understand the character of Kunal to see when he began loving Siddhi as it is very different form Siddhi; whose expressions indicated her feelings of falling for Kunal.
First of all, Kunal is not the person who understands feelings, emotions and relationships very well. as Seema said, he only understands right and wrong, it takes him time to realize things related to pure human emotions. For right versus wrong, he is willing to risk it all. Second thing is, Siddhi was with Anand. So Kunal always saw Siddhi as his responsibility and tried to keep a distance. No matter what he may feel inside, outside he showed his usual stern face. 3rd and may most important of all is his past with Richa. Their relationship did not end on good note and after that Kunal had becomes suspicious of so called love and all females, as he tried to stop Anand. Kunal in a way didn't believe in love per se or had abandoned that ship completely ( or so he thought)
So all three of these factors have numbed Kunal to any kind of emotions and especially towards Siddhi. Besides Kunal is a person who is not much expressive to began with (guys usually are less expressive but Kunal is near the end of spectrum). He express his care through actions and not words or even straight expressions. For example, upon coming to know his mother's back problem, he went out and bought belt; didn't say a word or express it otherwise. So in order to understand Kunal's care for Siddhi; we must look at his actions.
As we say in psychology, it's a process, love is a process where even the first tiny step is important. Of course some incidents do hold more value, but it is cumulative force. So the love we see between SINAL, it passed through many phases and it matured in those phases. These phases include mutual respect, understanding, trust, friendship, love, etc and beyond love as we see now. From the point of marriage, both SINAL did have some respect towards each other. But first real encounter came due to diary issue. There Kunal learned Siddhi is sure in this marriage the way he is committed. So that kind of brought them more or less on the same level. Then with very first time tissue came in place, that built a substantial connection between them. (scenes with tissue are my favorite). The bus scene also took a SINAL a step ahead with humors sleeping arrangement at night exposed milder side of the two.
From here we saw both of them trying to understand each other. Sure some issues came forward as its natural, but after Diwali, both were pretty comfortable with each other. During these times, Kunal and Siddhi often quoted "responsibility" as their reason for doing anything for each other, it was partially true. We saw Kunal staying back form bus for Siddhi. He wanted to make sure Siddhi doesn't face another incident as before and she's safe. (As Seema said, Kunal likes ot go places alone, he doesn't care for company; but that changed for Siddhi)
The Rohit's case irrupted the tunning between the two and they again questioned if they really understand each other. We did see Kunal going to Siddhi's B'day party, that came as surprise because Kunal doesn't care for it. His behavior there was different with his in-laws. Kunal once again said as part of responsibility, but it wasn't his responsibility to go after Siddhi and provide a tissue. Kapil, Shilpa and Seema were there (3 closet people to Siddhi) but Kunal made sure if Siddhi is ok. Later at night we see Kunal turning AC off to accommodate Siddhi, something he never did for anyone.
Once Rohit's case ended, that certainly was a major turn for SINAL relationship. Siddhi realized Kunal was right all along and Kunal realized Siddhi wasn't wrong either. From this point on, anything they did for each other was not due to any damn "responsibility" but simple care for each other. Here both realized they do share fundamental similarities, differences are on superficial level (some die to gender). Siddhi couldn't help but put her head on Kunal's houlder and Kunal couldn't help but console her. He also uses humor to cheer Siddhi up, learned form night of interview where Siddhi laughed a lot. We can see Kunal liked seeing Siddhi happy and smiling. Later he lets Siddhi win to see her cheered up. Later he agrees to go to party because of Siddhi's arguments. Before He had agreed to go to Durga pooja due to Siddhi's insistence. We also see Kunal more concerned with protecting Siddhi, be it from Thakral's torture or from Raj's scolding. He even lies to Raj just as he can't see anyone questioning Siddhi.
After the party, we see Kunal sharing his feelings of being upset about Richa's behavior to Siddhi. Kunal usually puts it down in his diary and not share anything. We also see Kunal exposing his emotional side to on talk of Raveena's engagement, again something we had not seen before. Then we saw Kunal making sure of Siddhi's being vegetarian at the restaurant with Ricah-Veenit and later in mahabaleshwar spending time with Siddhi as feeling sorry for her boredom. Later Kunal is shown sharing concern about money for Raveena to Siddhi. He doesn't share it with anyone but Siddhi just for the sake of feeling little better. These behaviors so far indicate Kunal's acre for Siddhi and how he considers her an important part of his life.
But Raveena's mehndi to wedding was part where we can spot major changes. We saw Seema and others teasing Kunal that he has changed now. he talks to people and once in a while smiles, all because of Siddhi. But best was Kunal taking crap form Shilpa's to be MIL. Both Seema and SIddhi noticed as Kunal never allowed anyone to talk to him like that. Later we see Kunal accepting teasing from Siddhi on his akdooness. Imagine if anyone else was mimicking him? We also see Kunal getting yelled at where he doesn't react. Later we see Kunal trying to calm Siddhi down and make tea for Siddhi, very much similar to him getting belt for Veena. Kunal heard Siddhi has headache and ran to get tea, no words just action. Right before Raveena's wedding; Kunal asks Siddhi if he's doing the right thing. Man questioned himself and asked Siddhi for advice. Once again after wedding, Siddhi yells at Kunal and he says no one had ever done that before. But it was Siddhi, he doesn't react as bad and agrees to whatever Siddhi said or he was afraid Siddhi may scold him again.
Later we see Kunal once again confessing his perceived defeat to Siddhi of not being able to take care of things like Anand. In hospital he confesses how he agrees to everything Siddhi says. we've seen others laughing about it during Raveena's haldi that only Siddhi can convince Kunal. Later Kunal tells Siddhi that it feels nice when she smiles so she should continue that.
Now fianlly your answer, it is very hard to say exactly when Kunal begin loving Siddhi, but I am sure it was around time of Raveena's sangit to her wedding; same when Siddhi started realizing her feelings. We have to look at the changes that came into Kunal, Seema is the one who had noticed these changes. Kunal did not realize these changes as they were effortless for him and he felt it was just natural. Where others saw him change, he saw nothing different because he was just trying to accommodate Siddhi anyway possible. But Kunal very happily changed because it was for Siddhi. The process was just so smooth and natural; that's why it is so damn good. Kunal just hadn't realized his love, given three reason I mentioned before. What he needed was an honest moment where he has no burden or shield, being drunk provided him that honest moment. This honest moment is what led to C-night as once again it was natural flow for Kunal. after C-night, Kunal really realized how far he has come and what has happened to him, falling for Siddhi.
Yes we didn't get to see same process of falling in love for Kunal as for Siddhi but I feel it was consistent with his character. He is not expressive, Siddhi is the one who brought clear expression out of him. But we did see once Kunal realized his love; battle of guilt, pain of perceived rejection and love. That showed Kunal's process of accepting love over everything else where he finally accepted that he loves Siddhi and that matter more to him than anything else. That use to be my favorite part of Kunal's Parichay, now it's 2nd favorite as I simply love what we are seeing right now.
So I hope whoever bothered to read the whole thing, thank you for enduring this long torture.
Kumkum Bhagya
Anupamaa
