Please help with update :)

I just started watching this show and saw the recent episode. Im a bit confused about the characters and what's going on. Can someone do a fairly easy recap of the story and characters? I'd really appreciate it. Thanks ahead! :)

vikram thakur...is a thakur of villag n love sugni very much

additya thakur...is nefew of vikram thakur...engaged with his frnd amrita

gulabia...is mother of sugni

reva thakurain is wife of vikram

vikram n sugni loved each other vikram thought riva is dead in accedint bt after 1 year of accedint he found riva still alive n he hide riva n truth from sugni..on d weading day of sugvi gulabia n adi brought riva in havwli...heart broked sugni deciede 2 destroy her life..n annouc her sirdhakai...vikram wanna do sirdhakai of sugni bt adi stopped him...n done sirdhakai[buy sugni for hisself] of sugni...n now vikram wanna win sugni n wanna merry her

i hope its help

Reason I asked was cause I didn't want to read really long extensive updates of episodes nor did I want to watch from April. Too much time consuming. Now I'm all caught up. Thanks again Nosl!! Exactly what I wanted to know :)

payal7

Senior Member

Joined: 14 August 2012

Posts: 221

PHS - Summary of the story so far (April - Aug 2012)

Backdrop ' Bendi tribe and its tradition of Rai and Sardhakai. Rai is a dance which was performed by Lord Kirshna and Radha which the women in the Bedni tribe originally performed in the temples. They and their families lived on the prashad from the temples. Over time the Thakur's moved the temples within the compounds of their havalis so that the Bedni women were forced to go to the havalis to perform the Rai. The Thakurs threw money at the end of the dance which the Bedni women collected and on which they and their families lived on. If any of the Bedni's caught the attention of a Thakur he can throw a red chunari on her head and announce that he has done her Sardhakai and gives money/land etc to her family. From that day she is his formal mistress. She wears a mangalsutra and sindoor in his name (both put on to her in a ceremony by another Bedni not the Thakur but there no Saath Phara so this is not a marriage). The Bedni can continue to perform Rai to support her family but she can only have physical relationship with her master. Any child from this relationship is not recognised by the father and does not have his name. A Thakur can perform as many Sardhakai as he wishes. Once he has moved on to a new Bedni then provided, he has given his permission, the old Bendi can also move on and have a Sardhakai by a different Thakur.

Main characters

Gulabiya (G) - A Bedni whose mother was also a Bedni who when she died at a young age left G with the responsibility of bringing up her two young brothers so G entered the rituals of Rai and Sardhakai as means to support her family. G's Sardhakai was performed by TJS (see below) by whom she has a daughter (Sugni).

Sugni - A 19 year old girl who is bright, cheerful, strong willed, free spirit who is against the tradition of Rai and Sardhakai. She loves to dance but does wish to do so for the pleasures of Thakurs and is against Sardhakai. Her most cherished dream is that she wants to live a respectful life by earning a living from hard work rather than Rai and Sardhakai, being a married and having a family.

Hukum, Katari, Najanya, Laxmi - Sugni's Mamas an Mamis (G's brothers and bhabhis)

Thakur Jwala Singh (TJS) - One of the most powerful Thakur in the area who is Sugni's father. He has performed a number of Sardhakia including G's. G has got under his skin and therefore he has a soft spot for her to an extent.

Saroj Thakurayan (Saroj) - TJS's wife who knows that her husband has had many Bednis and that he has a soft spot for G and therefore hates G and Sugni with a passion.

TJS' son - Son of TJS and Saroj and Sugni's half brother.

Champa - Sugni's best friend.

Rathu - Champa's boyfriend and Sugni's friend

Thakur Vikram Singh (Vikram/TVS) - The other most powerful Thakur in the area. He and his family have lived in Delhi for a number of years but he has now returned to live in the village with his family. He was married to Reva who died in a car accident.

Thakur Haldi Singh (Haldi) - Vikram's chacha. He was married to TJS's sister who killed herself by burning herself alive (it was not explained why but suggested that it may be due to Haldi's roving eye). This has resulted in a bitter animosity between TJS and Haldi/TVS.

Thakur Aditya Singh (Adi) - Vikram's nephew (sister's son). His father left him and his mother for a Bedni . They were left penniless and destitute. TVS who must have been in his 20ish at that time took care of his sister and Adi giving them home, educating Adi, being a role model for Adi. This incident had resulted in Adi hating Bednis.

Adi is a practical man who does not like to rely on emotions. He is very close to his Mamaji (Vikram) and looks up to him like a father.

He is engaged to Amrita.

Jiji - Vikram's elder sister and mother of Adi. She arranged Vikram's wedding to Reva.

Reva - Vikram's wife who was mentally ill from young age (her illness is not explained but I think she is emotionally unstable) something Vikram was not aware of when he married her. His marriage was arranged by Jiji. She and Vikram were involved in a car accident while she was driving. Vikram was thrown from the car and was rendered unconscious but the car and Reva were thought to have perished in a fire as a result of the accident.

She has returned one year later found by Dhanuma (no explanation has been provided as how this has happened). She returned one month before TVS's marriage to Sugni.

Amrita (Amu) - Adi's childhood friend and sweetheart to whom she is engaged. She has lived in London and is a modern woman.

Dhanuma - TVS's oldest servant who manages his household and they treat her as a member of the family. She is loyal to the family and TVS but the lines are a little blurred. She has strong opinion on what TVS, Adi, Amu etc should do and how they should behave and makes decisions without their consent.

Kuhu - TVS's younger sister

Vikram ' Sugni Story (April 'August 2012)

Sugni and her family (G, Mamas, Mamis and cousin Tinkle) live in the village. G perfoms Rai and the money she earns from that supports her family. Her brothers do not work but enjoy drinking, playing cards and eating non-veg. G's earning is not sufficient to meet all of their needs so there is constant pressure on G to make Sugni do Rai and Sardhakai. G loves her daughter and wants her to be happy and live her dreams, which means not doing Rai and Sardhakai. However G understands that there are not many options and eventually Sugni may end up doing Rai and Sardhakai but she does not want to crush her daughter's dreams so keeps saying that Sugni will do it one day.

Sugni is aware of the pressure on her mother and tries to find paid work to boast the family income. However most paid work would only be in Thakur's houses and the Thakurayanis hate Bednis as they blame them from taking away their husbands so obtaining work is very difficult for Sugni.

G is proud and although she makes money from doing Rai she does not ask TJS for help (Sugni's father and the Thakur who did her Sardhakai and in whose name she wears Mangalsutra and sindoor) which she is entitled to do. G loves TJS even though he thinks of her as Bedni and nothing more. In G's eyes a Thakur only see women in 3 forms: Devi ma, His wife and or a plaything on his bed. She has continually rammed this down Sugni's throat.

Vickram was a very positive character, who was smart, shrewd, charming, fair, humorous, loveable man who respected people regardless of cast or creed. He happens to fall in love with a free spirited girl - Sugni who happens to be from a Bedni tribe.

This was not a typical guys falling in love with a girl on first sight etc. They met by chance and fate threw them together time and again mainly when Sugni and/or family were experiencing some kind of difficulty/hardship because Sugni refused to do Rai and Sardhakai. Each time he helped for no other reason than because he was a man of principle and he admired Sugni's stance on Rai and Sardhakai and wanted her to succeed in achieving a respectable life for herself and her family. His support of Sugni often put him at loggerheads with the other Thakurs who do not want the old traditions to change but he did not let that deter him as he agreed with what she was fighting for.

After each such assistance Sugni and her family expressed their gratitude and said they would never forget his "Esaan" but the butchering of characters has meant that they have all forgotton especially Sugni and Gulabia.

The bond that formed between Vikram and sugni was that of mutual respect/admiration, which turned to friendship and then love. He wants to marry her which is against their society's rules and is disliked by his family. Vikram has fought family and society for their relationship.

If you go back to the start of the show you would see what most of us fell in love with. The Vickram and Sugni you see now are total opposites of what they use to be at the start. They have been butchered by the new writing team.

Vikram's mistake was that when fate bought his dead emotionally unbalanced/mentally ill wife (Reva) back one month before his wedding to Sugni he did not tell Sugni but instead tried to marry Sugni and hide his wife. G found out and with Adi's assistance forced Vikram to bring Reva in front of everyone. Everyone who has watched this show from the beginning has said he was wrong to do that. Vikram should have told Sugni, divorced Reva and their proceeded with marrying Sugni. Why this simple option was not considered then but is considered now is one of the inconsistencies of the writing team.

G because of her life experiences never trusted Vikram and after finding out about Reva in her mind he is root of all evil to the extent that she now dreams that Vikram will force himself on Sugni when in truth he has always respected Sugni and have not so much as kissed her or done anything else even though there have been opportunities. Vikram has always told G that he loves Sugni the person not Sugni the Bedni and he knows the boundaries of propriety.

Finding out about Vikram's wife on their wedding day has left Sugni heartbroken. Vikram was also broken hearted at the turn of events. Adi saw this first hand and has read a private letter written for Sugni by Vikram expressing the depth of hislove for her and that he considers her to be his life.

Vikram is a strong individual and has vowed to set things right by getting Reva the treatment she needs and divorcing her and then bringing Sugni back into his life. Unfortunately he has not told Sugni this explicitly.

Sugni wanted to hurt Vikram and therefore she did the 2 things that she knew he hated the most. They also happen to be 2 things she had always opposed. I think she has tried to justify her actions TO HERSELF by latching on the following reason - she needs make Vikram not love her anymore so that his marriage to Reva is saved. This is lame/poor reason as she does not know Reva, and does not really know what Vikram's marriage was like and if she really wanted to remove herself from Vikram's life she could have left the village and made a new life for herself elsewhere.

Sugni asked the Thakur's to bid for and do her Sardhakai ie. sold herself on the open market (to save Vikram's marriage). Vikram felt responsible and although he never wanted to do Sugni's sardhakai went and bid for her to save her from destroying herself. However Sugni hackled the other Thakurs to bid more for her than Vikram. As Vikram is wealthy he would have outbid all the other Thakurs but Adi convinced Vikram to let him bid for and do Sugni's sardhakai promising Vikram that he would keep Sugni as Vikram's amanat until Vikram gets Reva treated and divorces her. He would then explain things to Sugni and bring her back to Vikram. Vikram agrees but asks Adi to bring Sugni back to the havali to live after the Sardhakai. Adi paid 20 Lacs (we assume Vikram's money as we understand that Adi has no wealth of his own) for her. So for world at large Sugni is Adi's bought and paid for formal mistress. But to Vikram she is his amanat entrusted to Adi (something Sugni does not know).

Adi has told Sugni that he wants his mama and mami back together as his mami (who is mentally ill from a young age, who has not given her husband a moments happiness) does not deserve to lose her husband because she loves him (a husband who she loves but if she does not get her way physically abuses and then does not notice the injuries, and who does not love her but considers her his responsibility).

Sugni is finding difficult to live in the havali so close to Vikram who continues to tell her that he loves her, will set things right and wants to rebuild trust between them . As she does not know about Adi's promise to Vikram, she tries to force Adi to sleep with her because to her mind Vikram would not want her after that and would go back to his wife. Adi reacts by saying he will end her mistress status and tries to put sindoor on Sugni who stops him by reminding Adi of his fiance Amrita.

It should be noted that typically Bednis live with their family and the Thakur who has bought them come their for sexual favours.

To gloss over the stark reality of what Sugni has become Sugni is shown living as a guest in the guest house at the havali. She is dressed in gold jewellry Vikram bought her in preparation for their wedding (Bednis barely have enough money to support their family let along buy gold jewellery) so that she appears more as a newly married bride rather than a formal mistress.

Adi - Sugni have come together under these circumstances and we are asked to accept and sympathise with them when they become a couple who will be dogged by Vikram who trusted Adi when he told him that once he divorces Reva Adi will explain it all to Sugni bring her back to Vikram.

This is why most of the original viewers are against this jodi. It is morally reprehensible that a jodi arises as a result of:

- a woman who loved a mama (accepted him as her husband and jeevan sathi in her heart even though they were not married) falling in love with a bhanja (who started of hating her and then accepting her because of his mama but who does not like or respect her much); and

- a bhanja who knows how much his mama/ father figure loves this woman and who has lied to him about keeping her for him falling in love with her.

This is just to inform new viewers why the Adi-Sugni jodi is unpallatable and why some of us, the original viewers, have now given up on this show but will watch those episodes when Adi, Jiji, Dhanuma, Gulabia and Sugni get their just desserts from Vikram.

Edited by payal7 - 04 September 2012 at 9:44am