People were in general unhappy about this week's episodes but I enjoyed them. I'll give my reasons but first let's see the accusations against the characters.
Arnav has been shown meek and sufficiently mellowed down which is untypical of his characterization.
I did not feel that there was anything amiss with his characterization. Let's not forget that this man remembers his confession of his feelings to Khushi, although he was inebriated while he made them. Since he remembered saying that his heartbeats also quicken along with hers and their heartbeats become one, he should at least vaguely remember her confession as well. Otherwise why would he add her heartbeats too? So clearly this indicates that subconsciously he has accepted that Khushi has feelings for him but unless she admits that aloud, his pride will not let him acknowledge his own feelings. That is why he clamped up once she told him she did not remember anything (I do think she does not remember because she did look quite blank). He cannot, however, continue to be as heartless as he was before, knowing her feelings for him.
Now add to this the medicine mix up incident where he gets a taste of his own medicine. He saw her genuine concern for his health when she came rushing to his room to stop him from having the medicine. So she is not a mean or hurtful person but her demeanour changed completely when she thought he had deliberately sabotaged Payal's endeavour to get into Mamiji's good books. She did not give him a chance to explain himself, much like how he never gave her the chance to refute his belief that she was planning to break his sister's marriage. His earlier empty threats only went to firm up her belief and he has only himself to blame for it. So that mellowed him further.
So when she set out to annoy him, he knew what her purpose was but he tolerates it because (a) he loves her and unconsciously knows she loves him too (b) he feels sufficiently guilty for using her sister's marriage to hold her back.
Khushi was shown to be insensitive to Arnav's pain and his reputation at work
I find this accusation ridiculous. If the girl did not care for him, would she have run to his room to stop him from having the medicine, when her sister was being grilled by her mom-in-law? Her first concern was for her husband rather than her sister for whom she got married in the first place. Now that is quite telling, isn't it?
Then why did she not show concern about Arnav's neck sprain? Is it surprising she did not? People even compared this with Arnav's guilt and pain for making her sleep near the pool on their SR and his own uncomfortable sleep on the easy chair. After that initial show of guilt and pain, he got out of both pretty quickly, didn't he? He had no qualms letting her sleep outside for more than a month (as per the show they got married on Valentine's day and this sleeping arrangement went on till after Holi which was more than a month away), while he himself comfortably slept in his bed.
So he had a neck sprain because of his own inappropriate sleeping position and that too just after sleeping for one night near the pool. If Khushi is being accused for laughing at it and not showing concern, one should also accuse Anjali and Mamiji for they did the same. Why did Anjali, who is always shown to be bothered about her chotthe, not give him balm or pain killers? So it was no big deal for anyone except people in this forum I guess.
By the way, the reason why Khushi, who is otherwise sensitive to other people's pain, was shown to be relatively heartless, was because she is still under the impression he had some sadistic pleasure in marrying her and threatening her with breaking up her sister's marriage. If his actions can be excused because he is under a huge misunderstanding, her actions can be excused too, more so because he knows what she thinks of him whereas she still does not know what he thinks of her.
Coming to her latest business enterprise as dabbhawali in AR, the accusation is that she did not care for her husband's reputation, did not consult him before undertaking this venture and used his own office for her so-called independence.
Lets address the reputation bit first. Does Arnav really care for his reputation before his staff? If he did he would'nt have asked his security guards to forcefully keep his wife away from his office. He would not have spoken of her lack of status in their presence and retaliated to her juvenile water fight by indulging in it himself. More recently, he openly ordered his staff to cancel the deals with his wife. By washing his dirty linen in public, did he improve his reputation? Why should she consult him before undertaking the business venture? Is it because she is his wife? If so, did he treat her as one for her to suddenly give him the respect of a husband? Did he not say that they are husband and wife to the world only but he will not accept her as his wife? What is good for the gander is also good for the goose. She keeps throwing her Raizada surname at his face but does not deem it fit to give him the respect of a husband.
As to using his office space to set up her business, yes he could have thrown her out but why did he not do so the previous day when she came with the food? He did nothing but give her some cold glares and later clandestinely ate (or rather licked clean) her food. While he may be within his rights to throw her out of his canteen premises, he has no right to stop his employees from ordering food from her. She won those deals not because she was his wife but despite being his wife. After all the entire office knows by now that these two are a quarreling couple. When she invited them to taste her food, they were reluctant to do so fearing how Arnav would react to it. So despite being on a weak wicket she managed to win them over by her sheer cooking expertise. As to using his office space, as you would have noted, the food was distributed in dabbhas the next day (the day when she actually started the business as food distributed the previous day was free of charge). The employees used their rights to get the food they wanted. To show that she is not an inconsiderate person they even got her to strike a deal with the canteenwalla. So now the business is even more legitimate. In fact, I would say that her action is far more legitimate than his 'contract' marriage which does not fit into any definition of marriage in the first place.
So all in all, although I found some of the episodes a little silly, I did not think they were grossly inconsistent either in terms of characterization or the story, considering that this show has never been very strong on both the counts right from the beginning.
I hope my long ramblings made some sense to atleast some people here if they have been patient to read it through.
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