Have just gone through all recent posts... Was following the discussion as it was occuring but was too fatigued to jump in or even take import of points of debate, so I resisted... Was only when I thought (erroneously) that smrth bhai misread my intent, then was compelled to give a disclaimer... I jumped the gun then, but seeing prevailing debates, if this S vs K unleashed monster is even indirectly the result of my exposition on subjective affect on viewers, I truly tender an apology...
Seeing as I greatly lack Hgg bhai's neat precision with analogies, I'm most definitely going to make a mess of this... However, I will persist... Because I think that is the need of the hour...
Where I stand on this matter is that it is too early to take a side. On one hand, Kumud is still operating and drawing strengths from her false beliefs... On the other, Saras is still unaware of the full heartwrenching extent of her predicament. Surrounding these two, are the Desai's still holding on to misplaced hope about Pramad. The events have been set into motion, but it is not even half-time yet. The lead characters optics, are mostly limited to each other... Kumud does, at times, but Saras, he is not even thinking of the greater picture yet. He needs to, and he needs to judged on his actions, and mis-actions... Not while we're waiting for him to act, and draw up conclusions due to boredom with the fact. Because in his own way, Saras too has been trying... Regrettably, employing his energies in counter-productive pursuits, yes, but trying all the same. With whatever information that has been made available to him. The audiences are the only party with full knowledge of situations, the character optics are limited. We are highest on the heirarchy, hence, we are more likely to adopt God's perspective. But at the same, we ought not to forget the character limitations; they have not yet been made privy to all for a reason. And by that same token, so have we been handed complete knowledge of events, so that we anticipate how the characters navigate this quagmire of mis-truths, deceptions, assumptions and selfish motivations. We know the truth will out, but it is the waiting, which kills us.
Regarding subjective affect... Think of Kumud and Saras as opposite sides of a see-saw. Think of all other characters (Dhan's, Desai's etc) as sacks of sand. Each episode, since the Saras-Kumud re-meeting, the sacks of sand have been continuously shifting on the see-saw. For example, after the last episode... The see-saw might appear as such: Kumud (down) because of BD, Pramad, Saras, all "doing wrong by her", Saras (up) because only Kumud is on the other side, all else excepting Pramad, are "Team Saras". But, this status quo varies each episode... Right now, K is down, being assailed emotionally and viscerally by all sides, so she gets the sympathy votes. At the end of the episode, you feel for her, more strongly... Tomorrow, if Saras gets beaten black and blue by P's hired goons, he will affectively command viewers allegiance too... K's mental anguish will not be able to hold fort in front of S' physical injuries. Our hearts will go out to him, especially if his injuries were in service of protecting Kumud. It is the visceral which affects and impacts, more than the subtle.
Right now, Saras too is being weighed down by elements from the larger picture (LN's mistreatment, Gumaan's strategies, the Desai's misconceptions), but that is not at forefront of the narrative, so we forget. K's plight, "by virtue of Saras" (direct or indirect) is what we're getting to see and therefore that is what we are basing our judgements on. Once Gumaan, LN and Umess, come back into the picture (the original culprits) both Saras and Kumud will move to the same side of the see-saw and in that phase, their side of the see-saw may be down, but viewers will make sure that the two are placed on nothing less than pink, fluffy clouds where allegiances are concerned.
Hgg bhai said it best, this is akin to a Greek tragedy. Nothing is black and white. We've moved on from absolutes, from the innocence of love, into the grey zone, where that love now is deemed wrong by conventional benchmarks. Both Saras and Kumud have moved on from being pristine white, and so has their love. It is only fair thus, that the characters and their motivations will have imbibed some hues of the despondent, drastic, indeterminate stage they are currently in. More than anything else, in the "grey zone", it is viewers emotions that gets manipulated without respite. Because by default, we end up looking for either a "hero" or a "victim"... We crave for someone to champion and to deride. But here's the kicker... In characters which are flawed, there can never exist a pure essence of either.
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