Makers are trying to show Armaan’s character to be suffering from a combination of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): - Triggered by past loss or trauma, often resulting in hypervigilance and Postpartum OCD (PPOCD): Intrusive, distressing thoughts paired with compulsive protective behaviors.- the characteristics of both conditions apply to Armaan.
If we look at the narrative of his character as a young child he was uprooted when his mom “died” and brought to PH to live amongst strangers. Throughout childhood he always sought acceptance, unconditional love but never received it or felt deserving of it because of being sautela thrown in his face if he didn’t conform and obey. For him there unlike other PH children this acceptance, love, respect had to be earned – it always came with conditions. Dadisa and Vidya preyed on a young child’s yearning for this and if not physically, mentally and emotionally abused him to the point that even in adulthood he was afraid/reluctant to choose his happiness or do anything that they didn’t approve of. The Poddar name and all responsibilities of chorus gang – acting as protective brother was thrust upon him..he had to be molded into the obedient son, best brother, a top lawyer – an individual who continually sacrificed for the family such as giving all the good mango parts to chorus gang and he eating whatever was left, such as abandoning his love for music (I think in one episode initially they mentioned that he abandoned it cause Dadisa disapproved of it) . never learned to fight for his happiness or stand up for himself..became practically a “yes” man, a conformist to Dadisa and Poddar rule set.
He broke free of these shackles bit by bit when Abhira came into his life because she saw as an objective outsider the unfair way he was being treated and stood up for him, something totally alien to him. Abhira’s free spirited nature, zest and love for life, carefree attitude not to be bogged down with stupid Parampara, rules and regulations and seek your happiness intensified his love for her which he couldn’t freely express since he hadn’t completely broken the Poddar shackles. The possibility of losing Abhira is what led to him breaking off from Ruhi, the bahu that fit the Poddar mold, that conformed to their rules and regulations / expectations.
However, despite breaking the shackles he was still tied to them, still wanted them to accept him and the love of his life which Dadisa and Vidya never really did.
In the interim other traumatic things kept piling on such as Abhira’s infertility issues before marriage, Ruhi manipulating him / kidnapping him, Vidya shraap on wedding day, BSPs death, burden of guilt for accepting and passing of Daksh at Rohit’s insistence and then Rohit doing a 360 wanting him back, Daksh truth revelation by Abhir, Abhira leaving him sending divorce papers, Vidya causing Abhir’s accident, her jail sentence and her forcing him to seek revenge on Abhira – the license cancellation and divorce her – am sure forgetting other incidents
Armaan never truly and completely broke free from desiring that acceptance and unconditional love from Poddars especially Dadisa and Vidya until the truth of Dadisa and Vidya’s lies were regarding his mother Shivani were exposed.
Despite the struggles when they left PH, I felt the time spent with Shivani and Abhira in the chawl was the most peaceful, carefree moments of his life where he did receive unconditional love, acceptance and support from his two most cherished people. There are many things that could have made the narrative better but I won’t get into that.
Then again came the taunts to Abhira about infertility, inability to give Armaan a child, never having a complete family and all the trials and tribulations shown related to IVF. Finally surrogacy seemed the answer and all was going well but white day came where both Rohit and Shivani died and Armaan had survivors guilt and added responsibility of caring for Ruhi and Daksh and again being sucked back in reluctantly to PH..again the shackles the expectations piled on Vidya trying to turn him into Rohit, forcing him to join Poddar firm, Dadisa not accepting him wholeheartedly still bashing Shivani and still considering him ganda khoon and added responsibility of caring for Ruhi not only because of Rohit but also because she was the surrogate and carrying his and Abhira’s last chance at having a complete family. Armaan never had time to grieve properly for the loss of his brother and of his mother that he had just found – the one who showed him what unconditional motherly love was ….
As the due date of delivery came closer Armaan’s fear of loss – fear of losing another baby like he lost BSP came to the forefront. I think what triggered it were incidents of Ruhi being reckless drinking coffee, picking up and leaving resort during babymoon without telling them…along with his internal feelings and of course being sucked back into the PH shackles … This escalated into his obsessive behavior not only with Ruhi before birth but especially after birth…he couldn’t even remain in the hospital for the birth because in his mind he was going to be told that he lost another loved one..and this time his child….once Pookie came then the obsessive protectiveness no matter what he said, how he behaved, who he hurt came to the forefront…he definitely is not in the right frame of mind even though there are glimpses of him realizing what he said or how he behaved is wrong but then again his mindset gets overcome by his excessive fears of losing Pookie, of something happening to her..not realizing or understanding that its normal for kids to cry, be sick etc.
I am not justifying Armaan’s behavior but stating how he himself needs help. He needs therapy and counseling to overcome his condition which I wished DKP would show since anyone suffering from this condition needs not only medical attention but especially a supportive family…. DKP of course will use this insensitively to drive the separation and make him alone or put him in a mental asylum to make way for separation and leap….Thats what makes me mad..that this separation and leap could have occurred after they showed his treatment and cure with family support .. They could have then shown an accident, memory loss, presumed death track and restart of the Abhimaan love story. My opinion is that then this would have been a more acceptable leap.
Have watched many shows over the past three decades and become attached to many characters and ships – Abhimaan being my latest craze-however realize this is a TV show and Sam and RoPu are superb actors along with the rest of the cast. They are loved by the channel and RS / DKP and as employees of the production house they will never bash the script/writer but will enact whatever is given with utmost professionalism. I will support them and the Abhimaan ship even if I have stopped to consistently watch the show. I just wish the hatred I see by certain fandoms would not be projected personally to the actors…Loving and hating characters, the narrative as written by the makers is one thing but spewing hatred towards the actors who are doing a job is not called for.
Disclaimer: These are my reflections not meant to be accepted by everyone as all are entitled to their opinions.apologies if I misstated anything.
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