Life is beautiful... but not in ITV

Ok...

Disclaimer: First of all, this is going to be a long post so sorry in advance. I was thinking of releasing this pent up frustration some where for weeks..WEEKS!!!!!😡

I have a habit of watching ITV promos in YouTube when I'm bored (It's so interesting to see many shows having the same concept but the promos be like,' we are different.. we are deep... we talk about realistic things... etc etc..'😆😆) So I just chanced upon this show's promo the same way..  And at that time I didn't know it was a remake(?) of a Pakistani drama... What I thought was it was a similar concept of an old Malayalam serial which I watched when I was a kid. So I got interested only to be disappointed.(No surprise there.🤡)

That serial was about a couple. The husband was idealistic and slightly traditional while the wife was practical and slightly materialistic. (I think it was 'Life is beautiful'). But what I do remember is that every episode was gold. The couple always had differing opinions on any given topic. And most of the time the show will be in their drawing room where they discuss and debate. What I liked about the whole series was that the show never makes a winner or loser. Sometimes the husband's choice turns to be right while sometimes it is the wife's decision the makes their life more comfortable.. and sometimes both of them are right. And they even acknowledge that just because a solution worked for them doesn't mean that it would work for everyone.

They have discussion/debate on many things such as watching a movie in theater v/s renting a CD and watching in the comforts of their home(This was looooong before steaming sites were a thing... heck, maybe even before internet was such a household thing) Or using electric mixer/grinder to stone grinder(mortar and pestle). I loved this series because there was no clear message spoon fed to me by the show. they put both the sides of argument and the episode will have their version of answer as resolution but it will never claim that it would be true for all. In fact I remember after watching every episode my mom and I will have our own discussion/debate if it will work for us or the points the show missed.. what we could have done in this situation etc...etc.. It is when I became much older that I understood that that was my mother's way to teach me many things without sounding like she was preaching(or else I would have slept off🤡)

The other thing which I liked was the respect the partners had for each other even with polarizing opinions. Yes, they might not truly understand each other that much..They might mock each other countless times.. sometimes even stubbornly think that their opinion is only the right one but both of them have enough respect to listen to each other's opinions. Just because they don't agree to everything each other says does not make them a bad couple. In fact, whatever happened in the show, in the end, they both loved and respected each other as equals.  That was a huge deal for the little me. That the communication was a big deal in any relationship was something I learned when I was quite young. Just because you cannot understand someone's POV that doesn't mean that you cannot respect that person. etc..etc..

Enough of that..

So expecting something similar I started seeing it.. and well ...

All materialistic people are spawn of Satan!!!!

Either you are rigidly idealistic or extremely materialistic.. there is no middle ground. Seriously.... 20+ years of vamps should have been enough to drill this message into our souls.. but nooooope... we need this message again.. don't we? Common sense? Nope we don't have that... If ITV did not show us the problems of being too materialistic, we might never know it... we are kinda dumb.... We need to be spoon fed every single damn message.

"Pyaar hi sab kuch hota hai"

See viewers.. You should not be materialistic.. if you are even slightly materialistic it will ruin you for ever.. Because then you will confuse materialistic comforts as real happiness... you all are stupid you see.. you will clearly have no sense of self-worth, pride or even brains to think... because your greed will take over..(This message is brought you by the completely-family-oriented-not-at-all-money-mined-producers... they are definitely  not greedy for money.. 'Paisa? thoooh.. hume nahi chahiye paise hume toh punya kamana hai')

This show just irritated me in other level.. that I myself didn't know. But there was this frustration.

See, in the beginning, they portray Akanksha as a normal person.

1. A mother wanting the child to study in a big school and and study earnestly. (seriously most of the parents want their child to have the best opportunities which they couldn't have)

2.The couple actually discussing their financial situation and all other things while deciding if they want a second child.

3. She even let her husband take the transfer to her least favorite place.

But then, ITV has to do ITV.. they started slowly ruining her.. by stubbornly asking for the bungalow even though she knew that her husband would not be able to afford it. She values fame and fortune over her family. She totally does not value what she has but desires for luxury. She would forget about her child because of her work. She falls in love with a rich guy because he is rich and good at flattery/flirting. She confuses the feeling of love and feeling of being rich. etc. etc.

Manav on the other hand, is too rigidly fixed on his idealistic world. The world around him does not understand his value. He loves his wife so much that he will do anything for her.. but would not ever have a proper communication with her. He would pamper her to the point do anything to fulfill any of her absurd wishes. He will never make her disappointed in him, in the fear of losing her. And that is where he was wrong. They both are equal... none of them is a slave to another. He should have been open with her. He should have put his foot down when the situation went out of hand.. If she wished to have more than what he could provide for, she can do it her own. She could start working to fulfill her desires.. be independent than always depending on her husband to fulfill her dreams. Her dreams are her own to fulfill. Manav could always support her. Just like normal couples. ITV forgets that nowadays both the parents are working individuals and they are capable individuals who also balance their work-life and family properly. This patriarchal mindset that it is man's job to provide while it is the woman's job to nurture is so outdated and more unpractical in recent times. It is both the partners combined effort to provide and nurture.  Sigh.....

Akanksha's love is also sooooo unreal... Would it have killed them to show at least one episode dedicating to Akanksha's gradual mental distance from her family and her growing attraction towards another man in her life. It would have been easy to shoot that.. A small montage of Manav and Yatho handling the household alone whereas Akanksha rising up in her modelling career while also getting closer to Vaibhav. The the usual 'Ek saal baad' card. This love of Akanksha is so out of nowhere that even writers did not know to put it in a scene so.. just  made her confess her love randomly on a video call. A woman who spent 8 years with a man who loved her and she has no mental conflict whatsoever when she starts to have a feeling for another man. Love is not a button which can be turned on/off. Imagine the episode which deals with her psyche when she discovers that she loves another man.. the emotional conflict she goes through to decide..

But Nope.... She is not a human being to have things like emotional conflict... She is evil.. she is just a personification of greed and materialism. While Manav on the other hand, he is real... he feels pain..because he the good guy... and as we know there are only good people and bad people... good people feel all different types of  emotions  and bad people are just heartless, they can't feel anything.

I feel it is unjust to rant on this series so much.. (especially nowadays when all the series are season 2s SNS2, TPK2, BALH2, BV2,SSK2 etc...etc... seriously it is a season 2 pandemic in ITV) but it is so frustrating to see many ways it could have been better. Even if it is just a story about a woman having EMA they could have executed it so much more better. I am not asking it to be a like the show which I mentioned before of course.. even if it is a remake of the pakistani drama couldn't they make it much more better.. I know realistic things are not ITV's forte but someone could start.

OK rant finished...