Hi, I've been a silent viewer of this show for so long but I can't keep quiet anymore. Previously, I was neutral towards the lead characters but as the show progressed, I've only started disliking them to the point of hating them.
Let's start with Armaan. I started disliking him after his marriage track with Ruhi. It was not romantic in anyway stopping his marriage with Ruhi at the mandap and running to Abhira at the last minute. He had so many opportunities to stop the marriage. Did he not realise what a big social taboo it is (especially in India), as a lawyer? If this was real life, all fingers would be solely pointing towards Ruhi and her character. That entire track just showed how indecisive and insensitive he is and I don't get why a strong-minded girl like Abhira would want him. Just because he was a good husband to her after that, does not cover up his gaping flaws like the Rishta writers did (just like they brushed over the repercussions of his actions).
But the latest track of stealing the baby steals the cake. I used the word 'steal' as he took the baby without Ruhi's consent (even if Rohit gave it to him). He had multiple opportunities to speak up and tell the truth. He is not a 2 month baby who doesn't know right from wrong and no one taped his mouth shut. The real extent of his selfishness and insensitivity came out when he kept quiet when he saw how Ruhi was suffering. Just as he was insensitive towards his own wife. Does she does not deserve to grieve for the loss of her own baby? And considering how the writers tried to portray him as the 'ideal husband', apparently he does not seem to trust that his wife is mature enough to handle this loss. He is just as much a terrible husband as Rohit.
Towards Abhira, I was neutral all the while though I never understood why she would fall for a guy like Armaan. He was nasty towards her during the marriage track with Ruhi and considering how wishy-washy he behaved in Ruhi's matter, shouldn't she have some doubts towards his suitability as her life partner? At the start of the baby stealing track, I was really sympathetic towards her. She is also as much of a victim as Ruhi in this track and I was hoping she would divorce Armaan and move on when she found out the truth. But over the past few episodes, the way she is behaving insensitively towards Ruhi, who has found out that she has supposedly lost her baby, is really grating. Ruhi is portrayed as a villain but Abhira is supposed to be the FL. No I don't expect her to be a Mahaan, but just a sensitive human being. She is not a teenage girl, but she is a woman in her twenties who is also a lawyer. When we're around people who have suffered a great loss, all of us are so cautious about what we say and do. But the over-the-top way Abhira behaved with Ruhi leaves me questioning how she became a lawyer. As a lawyer, don't you need sensitivity when you deal with delicate cases? She appears to be situationally blind. Ruhi's hatred and jealousy towards her seemed incomprehensible previously, but in this track Ruhi's dislike for her is well-deserved.
And before anyone starts to call me Ruhi's fan, I am not. Just because she is portrayed as a villain, does not mean that the leads' actions and behaviours are correct. And yes, Ruhi deserves to be punished for cheating Rohit previously and kidnapping Armaan. But Rohit and Armaan equally deserved to be punished in this track. And no, Armaan and Rohit stealing Ruhi's baby is not justified.
To end off, I just want to say that the writers need to understand that if you want people to accept and like your leads, show them behaving in the right manner or show them accepting and learning from their mistakes. By making the villain aka Ruhi more wrong, you can't cover up their mistakes and white-wash your leads and make people like them. It just means people will dislike them like they dislike Ruhi.
11