Originally posted by: BrhannadaArmour
Hello, I am well; I am trying to stay hydrated as the days get hotter. I hope you are well too.
My interpretation of the June 26 episode's moving-into-his-bedroom scenes is that Pallavi was forcing herself to face her fear. Human nature isn't perfectly rational or self-preserving. Victims of violence don't always avoid the perpetrator or the scene of the crime; sometimes, they seek him/it out for reassurance that it won't happen again, or to prove that they're not afraid, or even to reimagine their mistreatment as a prank or a consensual interaction. And I must be clear (even if the dialogue and direction weren't): the situation was not that Pallavi felt bashful because she was inexperienced with whatmen in general. It was about Pallavi feeling physical attraction and sympathy and wanting intimacy with a man who had repeatedly invaded her personal space with aggressive behaviour, a man who had publicly lied about enjoying sex with her.
I don't find it weird that Pallavi's body language showed discomfort even as she was verbally agreeing to share a bedroom and share a bed. At that point, she had given up her desire to return to the Deshmukh family, and she had declared herself to be Raghav's wife. It was time to decide what kind of marriage it would be, and moving into the RR mansion gave Pallavi a choice: either claim her place in Raghav's bedroom right now, and work towards intimacy in spite of her discomfort, or lose this opportunity and stay in the habit of a sexless marriage. From the way Raghav talked, Pallavi might expect that if she didn't offer sex, he would find other women. So, Pallavi's hasty decision and lingering discomfort both make sense to me.
In the June 30 episode's scene of Pallavi waking up to find Raghav hugging her, I think she felt excited that she could sleep comfortably with him holding her and that he liked sleeping with her. It meant that her unease with Raghav wouldn't last forever, and someday they could have intimacy in their marriage. She was also happy to see Raghav sleeping peacefully after his agitated behaviour at the Vaṭa-Paurṇimā event.
If I had to make sense of Pallavi's behaviour on earlier occasions, when she shouldn't have felt safe with Raghav but she got closer anyway, I would guess that she was trying to convince herself not to be ruled by fear of him.
After Raghav threatened to run over Pallavi with his car, confined her with his body, and threatened to smash her mobile phone, Pallavi didn't have to meet him to pay him back for his keḷavaṇa "charity to the needy." She could have accepted it as compensation for the raw material that he had burned. Yet she went to the RR mansion and talked defiantly to his giant portrait and to him. The scene was played as comedy, but her bravado showed that she was trying not to be intimidated by Raghav's animosity.
That same night, Pallavi could have learned to stay away from Raghav when he carried her out of her house and tied her in front of a truck. Out of desperation to stop the bulldozer, she went to the RR mansion again, and Raghav kept her shivering for hours. Then (Pallavi thought) he had her kidnapped and tied up, and in fact he brought her to the RR mansion and kept her there overnight. After all of these traumatic experiences, it would have been natural for Pallavi to avoid the RR mansion. Instead, Pallavi visited Raghav's home to disrupt his pop-up display.
When Pallavi went to the RR mansion and dared Raghav to take back his complaint to the weavers' association and give her thirty days, she had to do it to survive. But when Raghav showed up at Manasi's maṅganī and fell on top of Pallavi, she didn't have to dance with him! Was she trying to reassure herself that he would behave in a crowd?
If that's what Pallavi thought, Raghav immediately disproved it by following her to her bedroom and trying to touch her blouse after she said no. After that, why did she accept his invitation to meet to discuss sarees for Jayati Jewels? Was it so important to act unflustered?
When Raghav refused to put on clothes for their meeting, Pallavi should have felt alarmed. Raghav might put his jacket over her torn sleeve and tell men not to look at her unhooked blouse, but when his mood changed, he would intimidate her with indecency. Yet Pallavi went to Raghav's house at night to embroider sarees. Was she so desperate to believe that she was safe from Raghav after saving his life?
The first time Raghav and Pallavi shared a bed was the May 26 episode, 3-4 weeks after he had dragged her into his car for forcible marriage. At the time, Pallavi's trick to make Raghav sleep in a chair was played as comedy, not in the context of his past invasions of her personal space. The later scene of Raghav gagging Pallavi and throwing her over his shoulder was also presented as comedy rather than a traumatic experience for a woman who had been restrained and transported against her will by this man three times before (counting the fake police kidnapping). The writing for the episodes shot in Hyderabad was different than the episodes shot in Kolhapur. So, Pallavi's attitude about sleeping in the same room with Raghav changed when they got back to the RR mansion.
In my fan fiction, after wearing the black dress for Raghav and almost kissing him, Pallavi admits that she is still terrified of him and not ready to feel his body all around hers. She has nightmares about being restrained by him and not being able to think clearly (e.g. not realizing that her hands are free to remove her gag). I think my version of the story is more responsibly written and more dramatic than having Pallavi fall in love as quickly as Raghav.
As for what Pallavi would have done with Mandar, it was mentioned on the show that she was waiting in Mandar's bedroom on their wedding night. Maybe that was just tradition, or maybe Pallavi felt that intimacy has to begin with some effort to share space.
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