Okay before I start, let me be clear that this is nothing do with the actors who I think are doing a brilliant job. HC is HC and I have fallen in love with Pranali Rathod. This is just my take on the characters.
Secondly, I am not good of a writer like Illuminatus or funny as APACS but do bear with me....
Abhimanyu Birla
When we first met Abhimanyu Birla, he seemed like the perfect man. He is good-looking, intelligent, a very successful doctor of something, respects women, loves his mother, loves his family (not counting his dad). He is a bit too serious and cynical and there was a mystery around why. He is honest and tells it the way it is. He doesn't mince his words and when he falls in love with Akshara, even his cynical thoughts go away.
But then the layers started to come out and dear lord, those layers reveal something completely different. We then see a boy trapped in a grown man's body. He is the golden child who his mom worships, his family adores. Even the father that he hates adores him. His siblings look up to him and respect him. His aunt and uncle have helped him succeed in his career. His only issue has been his dad. He thinks he's lonely while being the center of attention in his house.
When Akshara didn't say anything at the Tilak, he literally went and picked fight with a tire. He didn't go home and think about why was she quiet. He didn't think about what made her not say anything. No he went and fought with a tire and threw a tantrum. It must have been the first time in his life that he probably didn't get wanted. Then without talking to Akshara and without trying to know how she feels, he took her to his house and asked her to declare her love for him. The entitlement of it all. Once again when Akshara didn't, he once again didn't think why? He just fell down the stairs like the drama queen he is. He started to moan around the house sulking and making everyone else worried.
Every time Akshara saved his pretty behind and gave an excuse, he didn't think too deeply into it and just took it at face value and started to get nastier and nastier with her. Then he agreed to actually go marry her sister? Is that an act of revenge? Is he trying to prove something to Akshara? Like I don't get it.
Furthermore, as someone who loves his mom and supposedly respects women, he doesn't know what consent is. The question is not what Akshu feels. The question is not if Akshu loves him or not. The matter is that Akshu time and time again rejected him for whatever reasons, she told him NO.Yet he does not know what no means. He can't respect her no. How can he so obsessively in love with someone and than have such a lack of respect for her decisions? Akshu's reasons are her own. Abhi has yet to earn the right to know them. He has yet to gain her trust. He has never listened to her or tried to understand her. For him, in this so called love he feels, it has always been about him and him only. It's always been about what he feels, what he thinks, what he wants. He has been raised to think he's the golden child who deserves whatever he wants. He has been made to believe he can do no wrong. He's entitled and thinks Akshu belongs him so torturing her and disrespecting her is all fair game to him. He is one of the most toxic, manipulative and awful male lead I've seen in a long time and after watching the last two episodes, I do not know how he's going to redeem himself.
Akshara Goenka
Then there's Akshu. While Abhi is the ladla beta and his maa ki aankhon ka taara....Akshu lost her biological mother before she even know what a mother was. Then she was raised to believe that she's her sister's protector (seriously watch the early episodes where everyone is like oh nothing can happen to Aarohi as long as Akshu is around). The mother she did knew....Sirat, she lost in an accident where she constantly gets the blame for. She lost her father the same day she lost her mother and then the sister she loves more than life itself, hates her. Akshu lives in a house where in the front everyone loves her but if you look clearly, nobody can see her. She knows what pain is. She knows what heartbreak is because she experiences it everyday. Yet instead of thinking this entitles to treat everyone around her like crap, she instead treats everyone with love and kindness. She keeps her pain to herself only because she knows nobody will do anything nor will anyone actually care. She knows she's alone in this world and she has long accepted it yet she still shows up with a smile. She still doesn't know how to be bitter.
She falls in love with Abhimanyu but when she finds out Aarohi wants him, she backs off. Why? Because she doesn't know any other way. She has been conditioned from childhood to put Aarohi above her own happiness. Yet even then she still shows up to help Abhi again and again because she knows she's the reason he's upset and she can't take the guilt of making one more person be upset because of her. I think a big part of her had hoped that Abhi will be the person who will understand her, who will really know her....he will be the one who will teach her how to have a relationship with herself but like everyone else around her, he too doesn't see her. He can't see her heart. So it makes it easier for her.....to put up this front and pretend to be "normal"......does she get impacted by how he acts with her? Of course she's only human but she knows there's no point to let anyone know because at the end nobody will actually do anything. At least now she's happy pretending that at least her Aaru likes her again.....for her that's good enough for now because what's the point with hurting her sister and being with a man who claims to love her but does not take the time to understand her?
Jhanak
81