Originally posted by: arshi_asya
I religiously followed this show until it aired on TV. I have been reading updates, watching insta clips & visiting forum since it went to VOOT. This show riled me up so much during the entire EMA phase & after that until kids were introduced. Used to make several posts to understand these characters on my own, their actions & how a promising story went into gutter with the way it was executed.
Despite my initial apprehension for the show's initial promos & the kind of storyline they were depicting with all that juzzbat crap, I decided to give this show a chance. And I don't regret it because initial episodes were simply brilliant. For the first 2 weeks, the Maunal, the friendship, the abusive relationship, all was perfect. I even saw underlying issues in MauNal's marriage which could lead to big problems and on why Nandini would fall for a man like Kunal. But I wanted to see why would Kunal fall for Nandini because Mauli wasn'ta horrible wife or someone who made his life a living hell.
Things began to go downhill after the rain dance. I got that too considering that at times, something may trigger some forbidden emotions in a human, which happened in Kunal.
A friend & a devoted husband couldn't spare a single thought to a woman who was literally living for them suddenly. They were romancing right under her nose which honestly gave Crime Patrol vibes rather than some divine love religious vibes. To top that we had religious symbolisms, religious dialogs of swearing on holy books, sindoor crap and what not. They tried so hard to force such a thing as divine as possible which is impossible. Adultery is not divine, show it as a human digression, grey nature of human behavior rather than all goody-goody stuff. Then, Rajdeep was brought again and again to feel sympathy for the divine lovers. They were so incompetent enough to justify that to the extent they tried to use a criminal to make audience understand them. Then the dialogues were complete cringefest. Nandini's rant of "I don't know how this happened/No one had ever loved me like Kunal (Hello what happened to Mauli's unconditional love and does that count for nothing)/Forgive me Mauli and what not."
Nandini-Kunal never communicated. Their relationship felt more like dominant-submissive relationship. Kunal ordered her to do things & she did what he said. They literally made mockery out of domestic abuse victim who had just lost her child so tragically, to an extent that they made her sleep with the guy on 3rd day of their relationship immediately after she had been threatened. A woman like Nandini should have shown signs of PTSD in the relationship. She completely discarded the fact that Kunal wasn't just any guy, he was her best friend's husband & the resistance for him should have been 10 times higher. Rajdeep attempted rape on Nandini a night before & Kunal-Nandini don't even dare talk about it. Instead they sleep together without remorse with the sindoor and divine chanting. Nandini clearly needed psychiatric help after having endured 7 years of abuse, but nopes. Writers were more interested in divine love rather than focusing on trivial issues which made the story powerful. Mauli's molestation was completely sidelined. Nandini used to yearn for Mauli and out of nowhere this woman had audacity to say YES to Kunal's proposal without even thinking twice. As a friend she should have stood for Mauli but she didn't. And the PDA, were the writers smoking weed or what.
They never made audience understand why Kunal fell for Nandini- except for cooking, saree and all. That made Kunal shallow & lustful and it destroyed his image of a sensible man who didn't want to cheat as promos wanted to show. Promos promised 2 characters in complex situation & tussle about what to do with their feelings & not hurt Mauli. But none of it was shown.
And then an attempt to show them as holier than thou with all the bday crap, sacrificing crap. It didn't make sense. Foundation of KuNan relationship should have been communication about vulnerabilities and deepest things which were left unspoken. This communication would have gradually led to deeper level of things which would lead to EMA. But they completely omitted this key requirement. Kunal should have been made to talk to Nandini whenever he ran into problem with Mauli and Nandini could have realized self-worth through Kunal. EMA like that don't happen like that. When the people are sensible enough, the things like this are way more complex and grey making it impossible for audience to choose sides. But writer here made the task easy. KuNan were so pathetic, it made easy for Mauli to be chosen. Look at Kehne ko Humsafar Hain, Kdramas like Knowing Wife with same themes. They make it so convincing that it is impossible to ignore the plight of any character. That's how writing should be. Till date, I don't know why Kunal cheated except for the fact that he was indeed a spineless, irresponsible man who was just looking for a chance. I don't know why Nandini betrayed Mauli again except for the fact that she was indeed a selfish woman who just knew to use people for her own advantage.
The poor writing of Kunal-Nandini character was responsible for sympathy wave going completely in favor of Mauli. It wasn't audience's fault of not understanding a complex storyline but writer's incompetence which failed to gain even one reasonable supporter for Kunal-Nandini. Actors had nothing to do with it. NO matter who had played it, Mauli would still get all the support & KuNan would have been subjected to bashing. Writer tried to show KuNan as conventional, normal couple with all the divine things & music/PDA/dating, which backfired. KuNan were 2 people who were cheating a common person. They were backstabbing a friend who fought in tough times & a wife who was working her ass off to fulfill her husband's dream only to be betrayed in most brutal ways. None of these 2 had audacity to come out clean to her.
And now again, the whole memory loss thing wasn't needed if they wanted KuNan to be divine. The fact that writer still thinks of getting Mauli back to Kunal is one lousy thing. Mauli should either be single or be with Ishaan. For MauNal to be together again, the storyline was more complex. Because memory loss thing is stupid for bringing two together, especially after their past. The key to them getting together was again communication between the two on the deepest level which they can't make them do. For it Kunal has to realize his own grave error & negate things including his daughter which will make him more ugly & Mauli has to forget things which will completely undo what she stood for and fought for all these years. MauNal isn't possible especially after how they parted in normal circumstances. Memory loss was again one stupid idea. The show is masterpiece to show writer's incompetence in dealing with such a storyline & I had expected much better from Gajra especially after Balika Vadhu where she was brilliant in writing grey characters like Jagiya who went from positive to grey to evil to positive again very smoothly.
P.S- Ranted it out. It's been a really long time since I wrote on this forum.
Debate Mansion
Parineeti
Chakravarti Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan
