Sanjivani Retrospective: Shashank & Smriti Gupta + Their Found Family - Page 6

Originally posted by: RNpoint1857

I am on 4th part of Episode 39 of Season 1. Just keeping my honest opinion here. Initially they did focus on Juhi and Shashank, that's what I felt. Although Juhi was shown all idolizing Shashank but the way they used the camera effects, I don't know why but I felt that the creatives had it in their mind to show Shashank and Juhi as a pair, since the very beginning. As if giving us hints that they are destined to be together in future. Just that that suddenly Rahul and Juhi happened and may be the pair got so much love from the audience that the creative team might thought of giving Shashank and Juhi's concept backseat and hence everything got messed up (maybe) I haven't watched all the episodes yet so won't comment much about my anticipation about the upcoming episodes. And again may be because of Rahul and Juhi; Shashank and Smriti were given such high importance.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, glad you can see the episodes!

Sanjivani had quite a few pairs, displaying a spectrum of different types of love - and most of them weren't romantic in nature...that was one of the shows greatest strengths, in my opinion. It really made the bonds between the doctors stronger. A few examples...Shashank had a very strong friendship with Madhavi, she cared about him a great deal, but that didn't mean they shared a romantic love. Smriti was extremely grateful to Vishal for helping her through her low phase with Anjali, but that didn't mean she loved him. Shashank and Smriti, as written, in Sanjivani canon, had a love that didn't fade - it was complex, it was messy, it was mature, it was constant. Shashank and Juhi shared a very affectionate, very strong platonic bond, true, but so did Shashank and Omi. Smriti got along fabulously with both Omi and Juhi, too. Oh, and Omi/Juhi were super affectionate and playful with each other, but they loved each other like siblings. The rapport between all of these characters was so strong, all the different combinations of bonds made the show richer as a whole.

Regarding the Shashank/Juhi dynamic...The show was trying to establish a strong relationship between the two of them, for sure, but the writing didn't have anything remotely romantic from Shashank's side in that respect, so...that's a very interesting lens to view the old show through. If the creatives actually have a romantic-love-develops-between-mentor-and-mentee thing planned for this new show with those two characters, then I guess it will be easier for you to transition from the old to the new.

While watching Sanjivani, even for the first time all those years ago, I was struck by how strong the writing was for the Shashank/Smriti relationship - the throwaway line hinting towards Smriti's arrival at Sanjivani was right in Episode 1, the hints at a very complicated, emotionally-turbulent history between Shashank and Smriti were teased in their very first scene together...and there are a LOT of details throughout the first 60 episodes, extending even further through to almost 90 episodes, that are woven so well into showing who those two characters are and what their relationship is made of. The way their flashbacks are revealed, slowly and in non-linear fashion, indicates that their more layered storyline was written with a lot of care, for at least 80-90 episodes. It was after the two main couples, Rahul/Juhi and Shashank/Smriti, were well-established in their own ways, that the drama was ramped up and the writing wasn't as tight.

Originally posted by: Ayesha066

Agree.. that plot was far better than the storylines and concepts the current shows are based on..

If I'm not wrong they did address this fact in DMG that Smriti has passed away..

I only wish that they left old Shashank and his family as it was.. but looking at the series of flashbacks in the past few episodes it seems the complete opposite.. the cvs don't seem to agree with our wishes.. They are constantly trying to connect the character of Shashank and Anjali to the previous season.. But taking selective characters from previous season with twisted pasts seems to be the way they are going through.. forgetting that a character like Smriti ever existed and making the storylines of previous season irrelevant..

@bold- I completely agree.. but I don't think they want to add it to Hotstar.. otherwise people might get even more confused as to Where are these flashbacks coming from?

Yeah, I remember DMG tried to tie Smriti into that universe by somehow making her into Padma's friend (with a very amusing manipulated photo and decently-spliced footage to create a "flashback"), but more importantly, Shashank actually mentioned her and was still very reluctant to even consider moving on with any new companion in life. I vaguely remember him and Smriti's mother referring to her at least once or twice?

I was initially fine with the premise of this show, taking Shashank and Anjali and Juhi forward 15-20 years or whatever...Anjali could believably be in her early 30s, maaaaybe her late 20s. But the rest of the details have been changed, so it's like a reboot that maintains only the names of the characters. I bet later on, there will be random cameos to make things more "exciting." I'm sure you're absolutely correct about why Sanjivani isn't online anywhere anymore. This isn't a "re-imagining" of a classic, this is...I don't even know what this is! Anyway, clearly we're in the minority, actually having seen Sanjivani, understanding the various kinds of dynamics shown in that universe, still caring about those characters and their lives. I guess we'll just have to live with that show only. I wish there was a Old Classics Forum around here... *sigh*

Originally posted by: MelodiousDreams

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, glad you can see the episodes!

Sanjivani had quite a few pairs, displaying a spectrum of different types of love - and most of them weren't romantic in nature...that was one of the shows greatest strengths, in my opinion. It really made the bonds between the doctors stronger. A few examples...Shashank had a very strong friendship with Madhavi, she cared about him a great deal, but that didn't mean they shared a romantic love. Smriti was extremely grateful to Vishal for helping her through her low phase with Anjali, but that didn't mean she loved him. Shashank and Smriti, as written, in Sanjivani canon, had a love that didn't fade - it was complex, it was messy, it was mature, it was constant. Shashank and Juhi shared a very affectionate, very strong platonic bond, true, but so did Shashank and Omi. Smriti got along fabulously with both Omi and Juhi, too. Oh, and Omi/Juhi were super affectionate and playful with each other, but they loved each other like siblings. The rapport between all of these characters was so strong, all the different combinations of bonds made the show richer as a whole.

Regarding the Shashank/Juhi dynamic...The show was trying to establish a strong relationship between the two of them, for sure, but the writing didn't have anything remotely romantic from Shashank's side in that respect, so...that's a very interesting lens to view the old show through. If the creatives actually have a romantic-love-develops-between-mentor-and-mentee thing planned for this new show with those two characters, then I guess it will be easier for you to transition from the old to the new.

While watching Sanjivani, even for the first time all those years ago, I was struck by how strong the writing was for the Shashank/Smriti relationship - the throwaway line hinting towards Smriti's arrival at Sanjivani was right in Episode 1, the hints at a very complicated, emotionally-turbulent history between Shashank and Smriti were teased in their very first scene together...and there are a LOT of details throughout the first 60 episodes, extending even further through to almost 90 episodes, that are woven so well into showing who those two characters are and what their relationship is made of. The way their flashbacks are revealed, slowly and in non-linear fashion, indicates that their more layered storyline was written with a lot of care, for at least 80-90 episodes. It was after the two main couples, Rahul/Juhi and Shashank/Smriti, were well-established in their own ways, that the drama was ramped up and the writing wasn't as tight.

See I agree with you that Shashank and Juhi were shown as mentor and protegee in Season 1. But since I was watching these episodes keeping in mind the equation they are showing between Shashank and Juhi in Sanjivani 2, I felt that even in Season 1 they eventually were heading towards Shashank and Juhi or may be the creatives were confused - whether they wanted to show them as pair or not. What made me to wonder this, is firstly the camera effects (I agree that I might be reading too much - what the scenes are trying to depict.) but anyways the camera effects made me to wonder. Secondly, Simran and Rahul's getting married then as far as I remember even Aman turned negative - he teamed up with Simran. So where did all this take Juhi to? Then Juhi's idolizing Shashank. Here I would like to give refrence to one of the shows that I know (I am sorry I don't want to compare. I even don't want to sound hell bent to prove that Shashank and Juhi were destined to be together since Season 1. I am just putting my points in front of you, feel free to clear out my doubts and prove me wrong. 😊) If you have watched the serial Left Right Left Rajveer and Naina's story was somewhat similar to Shashank and Juhi's. Even Rajveer and Naina were mentor and protegee and didn't have any other feeling for each other initially, but eventually it did happen. I mean the story of Sanjivani was mainly focused on Juhi. Since the very first episode it was clear that it was more of Juhi's journey they were trying to show in the serial. And on the other hand Shashank was given great importance as well. So somehow I felt that Juhi's and Shashank's characters were shown parallel to each other.😊

Originally posted by: MelodiousDreams

Yeah, I remember DMG tried to tie Smriti into that universe by somehow making her into Padma's friend (with a very amusing manipulated photo and decently-spliced footage to create a "flashback"), but more importantly, Shashank actually mentioned her and was still very reluctant to even consider moving on with any new companion in life. I vaguely remember him and Smriti's mother referring to her at least once or twice?

I was initially fine with the premise of this show, taking Shashank and Anjali and Juhi forward 15-20 years or whatever...Anjali could believably be in her early 30s, maaaaybe her late 20s. But the rest of the details have been changed, so it's like a reboot that maintains only the names of the characters. I bet later on, there will be random cameos to make things more "exciting." I'm sure you're absolutely correct about why Sanjivani isn't online anywhere anymore. This isn't a "re-imagining" of a classic, this is...I don't even know what this is! Anyway, clearly we're in the minority, actually having seen Sanjivani, understanding the various kinds of dynamics shown in that universe, still caring about those characters and their lives. I guess we'll just have to live with that show only. I wish there was a Old Classics Forum around here... *sigh*

Yeah i remember just 1-2 instances of referring to Smriti in DMG.

After watchinh todays episode I'm just sure of the fact that they aren't just trying to reboot Sanjivani with some famous characters but they are also trying to connect it to previous one by selectively including a few characters with twisted plots.. I am absoltely sure they will be bringing back any of the characters from season 1 if they feel it will add more spice to Shashank Juhi Rahul or even Anjali's storyline..

I guess the old Sanjivani forum here has been merged.. But I agree if there would've have been an Old Classics forum I would have loved to relive my memories with like-minded people.

Please post sanjivani a medical boon episode 70

Excellent post. Thank u so much for sharing google drive link. This was my childhood favourite show. I was searching it for so long. Ahh! So many beautiful memories. The first sanjivani was the best.❤

Hi,

Thanks for the lovely post. It shed a lot of light to someone who's very late to the party, having stumbled upon Sanjivani (2002) last week. I've really enjoyed your synopsis and analysis. And will say unabashedly that I have begun to grow a similar fondness to Shashank and Smriti. Their story has me gripped. Thank you so much for the Google drive links. I have a question that I was hoping you might be able to answer. Smriti gets pregnant for the second time following their reunion and miscarriage somewhere after the 100th episode during the Neha debacle. What happens to the baby? Does she have an abortion as per Shashank's wishes? The drive, as you noted, misses a few occasional episodes, and it was unclear what transpired afterward on this track.

Thanks once again for sharing my newfound passion! Cheers.

Tea

P.S. Noticed that you'd written a few Shashank-Smriti stories in the past. Any chance of returning to more writing on that front? No pressure, only curiosity drives this question. :) Take care.