Is this show bold enough?

So, I've been following the show from the start, and in the initial weeks the trajectory the show was following, made me think the storyline would be: 

Jahnvi plotting to take revenge, Kabir (and Kavya) comes back from army, slowly discovers there is something fishy, then tries to expose Jahnvi. The battle of wits continue between them. Eventually, Kabir comes to know that Jahnvi is right, and his baap is a haraami. So, he works with Jahnvi, and brings PK down. Jahnvi takes her revenge, and sends the guilty parties to prison. She obviously breaks off with Dhruv (NO JANRUV! ANTI-JANRUV SQUAD). She moves away from the Mittals, adopts a girl child, starts a hospital in the name of her Dad, with the money Mittals defrauded from her, and lives in peace. 

I didn't, well, foresee a situation where Jahnvi/Pooja will get her revenge and the show will continue. So, right now I don't know what they are thinking of doing with Pooja. 

Anyways, since the show began, a lot of people across social media, had a problem with Jahnvi's character. Some said, she is manipulative and not above harming innocents, she should have been like Durga or Avni, if they wanted the audience to support her. Some others said she should be made into a complete vamp. 

Perhaps this shows our inability to understand/accept grey characters. We cannot compartmentalize them into 'good' and 'bad' woman, hence, we don't root for them. Why is this a problem? Because we don't know what their character arc should be.

A lot of people commented that because Jahnvi is grey, they prefer Kavya for Kabir. I suppose she isn't good enough. Some were like make her complete vamp, because then they can escape from the criticism of being judgmental. 

The only precedent I have in mind for a grey lead, is Maya (of Beyhadh). She is one of my fav characters, and was an amazing grey character in Season 1. But again the makers didn't know what to do with her. So, they made her dark in season 2, ONLY SO that they can justify her death. And Arjun (the shitty ml, if you ask me) goes and stays with the good girl, Saanjh. 

Coming back to this show, I will firmly say that Jahnvi/Pooja is still grey. She has not committed any crime yet. If she had managed to kill PK (in a premeditated manner, not self-defense or something) then maybe she would be dark, for taking law into her hands. But as of now, she has only done two questionable things: the way she manipulated Aarush, and mistreatment of Dhruv. Whether I like Dhruv as a character or not, the truth is that Jahnvi treated him shabbily, in her plan of revenge.

BUT these things are not enough to make Jahnvi a 'dark' character. In my eyes, she is still grey. Even now when she is doing petty stuff, like taunting or throwing mud, these are not illegal actions. I mean, c'mon in our country, unfortunately, a saas still taunts her DIL, or kids increase the volume of music to annoy their neighbors. At least Pooja's current meanness is still explained by years of emotional scarring and trauma. 

She is not able to exact revenge from the Senior Mittals, plus her sister abandoned her. She is not happy, so subconsciously, she has decided that if I can't be happy, I'll try to make Kabir miserable. Point is, she does not seek out Kabir. She saw him on the road, or he came to the company, she didn't go out and find him, so that she can taunt him. 

Anyways, so what will happen to a grey character like Pooja? Esp. now after her revenge is done?

This is what bothers me. I don't want an end where Kabir makes a good woman out of Pooja, and then they fall in love. No. Laadla nahi chahiye mujhe. 

Pooja is already a good woman, remember the land she got PK to donate for poor people? She is grey/shady ONLY when it comes to the Mittals, or if someone comes in her way, like Kavya. Otherwise, she doesn't bother with people. 

I want the cvs to let her remain grey. 

1. I still think, the best thing for Pooja is to find some sort of peace, give up this wealth, because this is not who she is, or use this wealth for her father's hospital and research, and adopt a kid and stay happy. 

2. Or if JaBir is endgame, then Kabir should accept her as she is, not making a 'good' woman out of her, or sermonizing her, because she is not wrong in her revenge, the Senior Mittals at least, deserved it totally! 

Is the show bold enough to give a grey character a happy ending? Without whitewashing/taming her?

Or they will make her dark, like Maya, and then kill her off. 

Where is Pooja's character arc progressing? 

Just food for thought. 

I think happy endings in ITV will not be given to grey characters. 

TRP aunties cannot connect with grey characters. But as some friend in the forum was mentioning how the show wud hv been had it started with little Pooja and how her father brought up the girls and how honest he is as a man.

Then they cud hv shown grownup Pooja starts to work as an employer how he married Dhruv and revenge etc.,

Audience wud surely sympathize Pooja and her actions. Even though he get flashbacks almost everyday PPL will not feel sorry for Pooja considerating the manipulation and plotting she had done so far in the show.

I love the questions you raise. I was thinking about my perception of Pooja the other day. I may be #TeamKabir but I realised that I wasn’t treating Pooja like a grey character. Subconsciously, I was relating her to Durga (not so much of Avni) but like you’ve said, she is different from those characters. She has done a couple of wrong things - I think even feeding Suman pills to drive her nuts can be considered a wrong action. It’s debatable though. Suman was just as guilty so she deserves some sort of punishment, but I’m not sure if giving her wrong pills was the way to go. 

Even though both Zain and Shrenu have mentioned that Kavya may be back, at this point, I don’t want her back because I don’t know if the writers would be able to do justice to all three characters. They are already struggling with JaBir. 

So if JaBir are meant to be endgame, I hope it’s Kabir who realises that beneath the petty and vengeful exterior, Pooja is a good person. She needs to find peace and Kabir doesn’t need to change her for her to find peace. Sorry for comparing, but Neil did something similar. Instead of encouraging Avni to avenge her mother’s death, he tried to help her achieve justice legally. I hope Kabir does that too. The Sr. Mittals need to be punished and hopefully Kabir would help Pooja by getting them punished the legal way. 

Pooja doesn’t need to change per say, but she needs to realize that there are people who want to help her. She needs to accept that she can only find true happiness and peace if she breaks out of the revenge cycle. I don’t think the writers intend to whitewash either of the characters but the tight time frame means speeding up things, which inevitably “butchers” characters for a bit. Hopefully they can turn things around before it becomes a good versus bad thing. 

Precisely. Where is this heading? I cannot see.

Word with everything. I still root for Pooja. But the way makers are transforming her into one unhappy sad soul, that's not right. Although she hasn't done anything peculiarly bad but she's turning into someone darker than Jhanvi.

Rather than this it's better if they show some sort of business rivalry.

This is a fiction show and trp is most important for this ,. So don't expect that.

Now Pooja starts  to live her 20 years life.  Just she is teasing Kabir. It is everyone's part of life. Today office scene scared me. She looked like a  beautiful hare surrounded by the cunning foxes.  Hereafter she need not do any crime for her revenge. According to her ,  pk's chapter was over. She is teasing Kabir for his challenge only. It does not be considered as a dark action. She should have a happy ending.

I have the feeling right from the first promo that this was a web series story and not TV. Show was bold and still is in some way because they are not trying to redeem Pooja in any way at all. She needs to heal and absolve herself from this anger. She needs to come full circle.

I do agree that if they had given a little bit more insight into Pooja's past the Trp audience would have connected with her more and accepted her easily. 

You can never change your basic nature so if Pooja's basic nature is being good then she will turn an honest woman but if grey is her basic nature she will retain that. 

I like to call Kabir the SP Bahu or SSM and there is a reason for that. I think if that man truly loves a woman he will love her as it she is. So he will help her heal but not change her basic nature.

Right now I m just enjoying the ride. Those two are setting the screen on fire.

Grey characters are still a new trend on the ITV unlike the Western Tellyland where the society is more broad-minded to accept such grey shaders & there it gets more appreciation.Anyway getting back to EBSS whatever Pooja/Jhanvi has currently done with the Mittals killing PK(presumed dead might come back later) & snatching away all the wealth & glory making the Mittals fight for their survival might seem right/wrong depending on the viewers reaction.I agree that some might say that whatever Jhanvi did with PK was justifiable but the manipulation of the kiddo.Arush or the practice of wrong medicines to Kabir's Mom Suman crosses into the uncharted territory.

Jhanvi & Durga both were grey characters whose primary motivation were laced with revenge due to the actions of their respective tormentors PK and Shaurya.Coincidentally the guy playing PK was Rajnath Goenka in EHT though he was not the primary antagonist.Maya of Beyhadh did seem to have shades of grey but was more of a meglomaniac out to get Arjun for herself.So yeah Maya was the vamp in literal sense.Grey characters keep.the balance on both sides of the spectrum good/bad depending on the circumstances & the actions of their adversaries.

Perhaps the trp.aunties sympathized with Durga more than Jhanvi bcoz Durga primarily had the entire Goenka family with the exception of Dev in the cross-hairs bcoz her sister was raped by Shaurya who got saved due to the money power of the Goenkas where there was complete travesty of Justice.Nitya came back.as Durga to avenge her loss and humiliation but in the Mittals only Suman/PK were the black sheeps not the entire Mittal family which includes the eldest Guardian Dadaji.PK with the help of his lackey/friend Commisioner framed Dr.Ashok.Sharma for the misdeeds PK did in the manufacture of sub standard fake medicines.Ashok was made the scapegoat but Jhanvi blinded by revenge targeted the whole Mittal family without verifying the complete facts.As for how Kabir & Pooja would fall in love or whether both would play with each others emotions under the guise of fake love that remains to be seen.

Durga & Pooja were both calculative yet Durga unlike Jhanvi was not after each & every member of the Goenka family like the Mittals.Durga's chief target was the main culprit Shaurya whereas the entire Mittals were the culprit in the eyes of Pooja.Durga did not play with any child's emotions unlike Jhanvi/Pooja who did it though she had that conscience that whatever she was doing might be wrong but neccessary for her revenge plans.Arush found a motherly figure in Pooja and perhaps had Pooja been in any other position would have adopted Arush as her foster son leading a normal family life with Dhruv.Whatever Pooja's intentions might have been using the child as a pawn in her game would never be seen in a right manner.Durga unlike Jhanvi never played with Dev's emotions what Pooja did with Dhruv.If Durga was cunning then Pooja was crafty using any means posdible for her revenge which Durga never did.Even Shivanya/Shivangi also.never targeted the whole family only killed those who.were the main culprits.Whatever Durga did was within the realms of justice unlike Pooja who.did not shy to use every means possible in her revenge game.Whether this is right/wrong depends on the perception of the viewers.

Lovely post Ananya 

Maya's character was not very appealing accordin to me- for me  ..I usually like Sony shows ..but watching Pshycho Maya extremly disturbing so i stopped watching, Jhanvi was fire 

Watching Jhanvi was delight because she had so many shades ...and now I am looking forward to another shade - Pooja ...She is calmer 

NO THIS SHOW IS NOT THAT BOLD LIKE BEYHAD .. and Thank God for that ..

@masked which is why l said that Durga is a positive character. From the name itself it's clear that makers are showing her as the establisher of justice

Jahnvi is truly grey. Her intro was as a ethically questionable person.

Grey are not those who use cunning means to achieve correct ends. 

Grey is someone whose means itself are questionable. 

At least that's my definition of grey, and within that Durga is still a white character and thus got a happy ending.

But Pooja being grey, we don't know what is her fate.