Radha isn't connecting to us but why?. A fun poll. Can try it out.

Some observations from first week episodes of RadhaMohan on Zeetv:

Who is village belly Radha in this show, what's her backstory, what does she do in life, what does she want in life? As per launch media bytes and promotions by Zee, Radha is a poor daughter of a village priest and not so educated, innocent, young, unmarried village belly who adores Mohan since her childhood and wants his happiness..

But its confusing so far, it seems Radha has NO other story or skills in her life than crushing / worshiping Mohanjii, as some one who as teenager consoled baby Radha and gave Gita when she was 6 years old kid mourning her mother's death. 

Now its amusing, how can some girl become such a devotee of a man? when from 6 to 20 years age this village belly didn't even properly meet or spoke with Mohan? nor has befriended Mohan and lady is not even bothered about her own family, their happiness but she is more worried about Mohan whom she just sees as a sad man in her village Mandir during his engagement ceremony and what's even more amusing is that she also knows already Mohan is a widower with a kid from his dead wife as heard from her Dadi & father, yet she overnight runs away from her home, uninformed just obsessed to meet him? 🤗

Yes its predictable, Radha will get some scenes to safeguard Gungun and faces torture by vamps / villains to get Mohan's sympathy and fixed place in his house, even if she is not needed for Mohan's back story to be told to viewers in detail.

Even if casting was better, with another better performing experienced actress playing Radha's 20 yrs young girl role, does this Radha character have substance to connect with audiences for possible age gap love story of young woman-old man jodi or to become motherly figure of Gungun? 😒 Can this character build onscreen chemistry as an odd pair with Mohan? 

Anyhow just posted a fun poll, to know why Radha's character not connecting to many. People may try it out. Would be fun to know results.

Edited by LAV2725 - 1 years ago

To me, Radha's characterization is weak and seems like a character without whom the show can still function. her scenes feel forced and she's an irritating character. her bubbliness seems forced and just like that, in one day she is behaving like gungun's caretaker. 

her parents haven't reacted to her running away, she doesn't seem to be bothered about her parents. She's just infatuated by Mohan and has walked off. Radha from the word go feels like Mohan's obsessive stalker. 

While Mohan's pain and gungun's hate are understandable. The protagonist of the show seems to be the redundant force fit. 

The story should have started showing Radha in her family background and Mohan in his family background with an introduction of their respective families/nature of relationship for the first few days for us to get familiar with the characters but the writer has hastily jumped off to Mohan's engagement, court case, Gungun's hatred towards him and then thrust in Radha out of the blue into this scenario.  The devotion type of love with parallels to Radha/Krishna does not corelate with Radha/Mohan relationship.

More than anything, there is no chemistry at all between Radha and Mohan, the FL is not doing bad in acting but one thing very odd about this serial is that there is no chemistry or connect between any of the characters nor do any of the side characters connect with the audience.  This serial till now is watched only for Shabir and accepted only for Shabir who is giving more than his best which itself looks odd when there is no likewise reciprocation from his costars.

I agree they should focus on improving her characterization. Maybe they will start establishing her story with this weeks episodes with her nani and baba coming over to get her from the trivedi house. I have not seen the latest episode and have read that the typical itv chemistry waale tropes have started where mohan lifts an injured radha , she looks at him mesmerized a second time first time being the room in his house where he is shown sleeping after changing. Writing has been spectacular for mohan so far they need to keep it on an equal footing for radha as well. 

Par cannot blame the writing too much cuz the typical scenes get the trps. So far shabbirs fantabulous acting along with that of the kid playing gungun both are very good and make me want to watch the show. Kid ko bus kid waale dialogues de de makers.

Would've been better if they had a good backstory for her, take some days to come to where they are right now. So far the only thing we know about her is her admiration and concern for Mohan, which actually feels naive and unconvincing. Even the scenes with her family were focused on the same - almost nothing else.  

Perhaps they are focusing more on events than on giving time for the characters to grow. We already have some major events happening in these 7 episodes - engagement, revealing the ghost, havan, court case, kidnapping attempt, along with her leaving her home and being thrown out of his home. That's quite a bit for the small journey we have had thus far. Hope they slow down a bit and give her more depth in the coming days - even more than the next obvious thing that she will befriend Gungun (and impress Tulsi with her actions).

Assuming they changed the character of Mohan from the original for Shabz, perhaps they would've been forced to do something similar if they had a more experienced actor for her role. Have to say the current actor is fine, its the characterisation that could be better. 

[Hmm... I have felt her character to be a 'forced' one... but is there a possibility that its actually her nature that is 'forceful'? She is the only one (apart from Tulsi) eavesdropping on today's MoGun convo. She did the same entering his room the other day.] 

Edited by Adiandsid - 1 years ago

Honestly speaking, I'm going to presume the following thing is being shown here with regards to Radha by the writers here:

The backdrop was that Mohan gave her the Bhagvad Gita to provide some solace as he's undergone a similar phase with his mother's demise. So, she seems to remain indebted to him for providing her the holy scripture that guided her in her childhood to the present phase

. 

Later, they meet & she finds him in trouble via observing the incidents at their home --- strained relationship with Gungun, grudge (perhaps a better adjective could be used here?) against Tulsi for some MU that seems like requires more depth disclosure to explain the reason since we are still oblivious to the reason as to why she wanted to leave Mohan in the past before her untimely death & the court case, family politics (which is a bit annoying to watch though Shabbir does an okay job, but I still for some reason feel his arc needs further development alongside the essence of Radha's arc too), etc henceforth presumes trying to (perhaps?) help him since he helped her once in the past. 

Again, this is only my presumption of the direction of the storyline but anything is possible.

Where I find problematic is the execution & direction in regards to her dynamics so far in the storyline. It just feels that the execution needs improvement. I think someone mentioned it already that the track isn't something never seen before. I just feel the way they executing Radha's dynamics just feels like FFing at times because her scenes just make me feel annoying with the way it's getting delivered. 

The way they opened up about Mohan's past, Tulsi's role, Gungun's hatred, I felt Radha's backdrop after she entered the house was just not executed properly. 

Off topic: Though they haven't sabotaged Mohan's relationship with his foster mother which is nice to see, it just feels like I'm not riveted though she does have a potential as a positive character & influence especially with her dynamics with Mohan. Even though one would want to feel bad for Radha getting scolded by the mother, but I can't help but say she just feels randomly inserted & annoying myself as a viewer. 😕

Sorry for the long rant lol & apologies if anyone felt offended. 😂 

Edited by Myrah_2020 - 1 years ago

In all remakes of same original Tamil show, seems naive village belly character was shown as close relative / friend / very well known to the male lead as chubby, bubbly, young, immature girl since the beginning  and he was in touch with her and her family for long years,😊and may be that character in those shows was better written, casted & styled, unlike here in RM version. 

And those shows titles were not around village belly character too, that might have been an advantage for those. Here feel LSD films and Zee unnecessarily gave shows title around devotional / mythological  Radha Mohan also termed it as Pyar ka Pehla naam which means first name of love, which is contradictory to story plots. And they also went overboard and promoted show around title. 

As per most mythological stories, Look Krishna's young age lover Radha was elder to him, they both had intimate romance or Raasleela & then Krishna had to leave her for his next phases of life, he didn't marry Radha. Later on in other parts of world during other periods, Meerabai was one sided devotee of Lord Krishna since childhood was adoring & worshiping his idol in her temple as God singing bhajans and Meera's character doesn't become his life partner ever.😳 So its likely some people who started watching actual episodes last week based on promotions and show's title may dislike or disapprove or be disappointed in few major areas.

Here in RM major disconnect to begin with, is from 6 to 20 years age Radha lived in Barsana, and Mohan has NO clue of her existence or even remembrance of her till she forced herself into his house one night all of sudden and started stalking him as young unmarried lady. Here he does not even remember consoling baby Radha and gifting Gita as a teenager.

And now next part. Last 12 years self claimed one sided lover / vamp, well educated business handling Damini is Mohan & Tulsi's college friend, it means she may be in her early 30's but she appears much younger, innocent onscreen when it comes to looks department. And Radha is supposedly young unmarried 20 years innocent village belly, who appears more matured in looks than Damini.😛 Casting, makeup, styling and presentation of two main females in RM is coming across so weird.

Edited by LAV2725 - 1 years ago

Radha's character is a bit of misfit over here. I mean we cannot connect with  her character. She is in awe with Mohan and her devotion for him is ok. as of now. But she running from home all the way to meet him is weird. I feel a bit of bored seeing her Mohanji jaap😆 . Idk whether am i the only one who feels this way. Her character looks forced and weak. 

Edited by Surilikoyal - 1 years ago

You are surely not the only one - that's the opinion I've come across in the bird app too. It shows something when we can connect more to the ghost than the FL. They need to do something about it. 

This content was originally posted by: Adiandsid

You are surely not the only one - that's the opinion I've come across in the bird app too. It shows something when we can connect more to the ghost than the FL. They need to do something about it. 

Thank God😃Radha gives vibes of a stalker who has nothing else to do  but only do Mohanji jaap. It would be better if they showed some friend of her whom she shared everything. Here she has only dadi right. Mohan didnt even notice her when she bought kheer for him. He is rather irritated or isn't keen on knowing her. Mohan's first wife Tulsi's ghost has a strong screen presence and audience are curious to know about her rather than Radha

Edited by Surilikoyal - 1 years ago