Made in heaven (Amazon series by Zoya Akhtar and Excel Entertainment) - Page 5

I am sure he was married to a guy, I don't see how he would be happy otherwise. 

I am rewatching and I love the two leads so much. I want to hug Karan forever, and I am in awe of Tara.

First, the infidelity, I am normally a black-and-white person when it comes to infidelity, but somehow the Karan/Nawab tryst just felt ... right. And I couldn't understand why, so I thought about it and came up with a few theories. 

I think the most important part to me is that there is no doubt about the fact that they are each other's true and forever loves. I have seen some people on twitter say they knew Karan loved Nawab but not vice versa. To which I say, put yourself in Nawab's shoes. Karan was his first love. He trusted him with his most intimate secrets. He was everything to him. And, out-of-the-blue, Karan turns on him, and what is worse, throws that very secret back in his face in the worst possible way. Can you imagine what a profound betrayal that is? And what is worse, after Nawab leaves the school, Karan never even tries to contact him to apologize or explain. Don't get me wrong, I love Karan, but bear in mind, only WE see his guilt. Not Nawab. And ultimately NAWAB is the one who reaches out. And all those years of resentment, anger, confusion, they all melt away after one "I am sorry." That is ALL Nawab wanted. and don't get me started on how tenderly he treats Karan in the subsequent scenes.I know he is married, but he says his marriage is "happy. Mundane." for a reason. It is to contrast with this all-consuming love he has for Karan. And Nawab NEEDED that closure, he needed to know that Karan felt the same way, It wasn't some cheap fling, it was a culmination of years and years of repressed feelings. And I know everyone feels bad for Karan when he cries in the car (my heart broke for him) but he is not the only one who is not able to be with his true love. Nawab is too. Nawab's little "keep in touch" was heartbreaking. He knows he is married and he is not even thinking about breaking it off to be with Karan, but you can imagine how hard that is for him. 

On the other hand, poor, sweet, love-struck Karan. He adores Nawab, always has. That first, ADORABLE scene between the two where he slips the note into Nawab's pocket! Yet, he betrayed Nawab in the worst possible way. He broke his heart. And he needed to understand the consequences of his cowardice. If Nawab had come back to him that easily, if Nawab had been available, it would have cheapened what he put Nawab through. But also, Nawab needed to be there for Karan at his lowest. He was home, he was the only person Karan could confide in. And he needed that comfort, he needed that strength, that closure. 

To summarise, Nawab and Karan needed to have their moment together, they needed to have that closure, and they needed to have it while Nawab was still committed to someone else, because Karan and the audience needed to know that there are real consequences to breaking someone's heart. 

I still think that they both should be together, ultimately. I think Nawab should be honest with his partner and work on his marriage, and I think Karan needs to work on his issues a lot more and have some real relationships. But I think they will find their way back to each other, because, ultimately, they are true love. And I honestly think Nawab's partner and Karan's prospective partners deserve better than being with people who will ALWAYS love someone else more.

And because I NEED THIS RELATIONSHIP, damn it. 

IMHO, Nawab deserves someone better. He is too good for Karan. But I guess he really loves him.

On a side note, I do not know what to make of them sleeping together when they meet after all those years. Yes, I did not really mind it. But then I think it was designed in such a way that audience doesn't mind it - we were never really shown Nawab's partner, so that no sympathy was created for her. On the other hand, I know a lot of married closet gay/bi men have parallel discreet dating lives. These days people hook-up so easily, so it may not be a big deal to Nawab and Karan. But I still wish it was not reduced to them making love and becoming yet another of their one night stands. I really wish season 2 (is there going to be one?) explores their relationship further, with Nawab eventually getting out of his marriage and getting together with Karan...

Although I love Karan and my heart went out to him when he had to take all the torture, I did feel slightly disgusted when his actions towards Nawab in the past were finally revealed. In that moment, I admit I truly appreciated the writing of the show because even Karan who everyone watching the show is supposed to sympathize with is shown as such a flawed person, that for a moment you feel disgusted about whatever he has done in the past despite his present being so torturous to watch. But, again you do tend to give him the benefit of the doubt and kind of understand why he did what he did - which still doesn't make whatever he did the right thing. Nawab is someone you can only feel love for. In the flashbacks, as well as the in the present. 

As I already mentioned in a previous post how my heart broke when all Nawab wanted to do when he was being humiliated by Karan was talk it out with him. Karan's mom caught both Karan and Nawab red-handed in the washroom. She literally threw Nawab out of the house, yet it was only Karan who responded negatively after the incident. Nawab still wrote him an 'I love you' note, he still trusted him so much that even while being humiliated he believed talking would solve their problem  - only to have all that love and trust brutally thrown out of the window by Karan. 

And I think this is why despite Nawab being happily settled and married with another man, we were still able to look past it when he spent the final night with Karan. It was morally wrong for him to dobthat, but it didn't feel like that because of everything that the two had been through. Karan's betrayal of Nawab's trust to Karan's own humiliation at the hands of the police and the society. It just felt right for them to be together in that moment admitting their true feelings for each other. 

As Hedwig said, I also think Karan and Nawab should be together ultimately. They were always meant to be. Despite, the betrayal and heartbreaks, they still managed to find their way back to each other. There was a time when Karan had crushed Nawab's trust, but years later he could trust only Nawab to tell whatever had happened with him in the police station. Not Tara, not his supportive father, but only Nawab. How heartrending beautiful is that? 

What Karan did to Nawab was inexcusable but it's quite evident that Nawab knew why he reacted that way. He tries to pacify him. Nawab knew first hand the kind of hell Karan was living in and why he was unable to communicate with him. Does that make the betrayal any less worse? No. He broke his trust. Karan forced him out of the closet and that must have been traumatizing BUT having been in love with him I feel Nawab knew why he did what he did or his thought process. If not then,maybe years later. They were kids in a relationship forbidden in society. He wasn't ready to come out and he didn't know what else to do. There's also internalized homophobia in play because essentially he knows by hating on whatever Nawab is,hes hating on himself. 

Now why he didnt apologize after years is easy for me to understand. He simply didnt think he deserved to apologize or explain himself. He's still in love with him after years but doesn't have the balls to contact him. He has let the only person he knows him, really knows him down. And he's already feels like a disappointment to his parents and he's still hiding. He simply didnt have the balls or courage to face Nawab. Its a very human thing. He looks at Nawab's pictures and hopes he's happy. Thats the only level of emotional vulnerability he allows himself. 

Its only when everything is out and he feels liberated that he gets that message and finally feels ready enough to face Nawab. There's no longer internalized homophobia,no longer the mom's voice in his head,there's no longer the fear of peers. He knows this could be it. His only chance for proper closure. Also he knows Nawab is happily married without him, he's happy and in his head he's moved on and this is his only chance to set things right. The fact that Nawab contacted him is of primary importance. It shows whatever Karan did for the community has finally reached the one person he wanted it to reach. Nawab is open for a dialogue and he acknowledges Karan even after everything. Karan didnt even in his wildest dreams think he'd have this chance to explain himself. So everything repressed and unsaid comes out in full form in the meeting. 

And to be honest,gay/bi relationships have similar hookups just like hetero ones. Affairs and hookups are frequent regardless of sexual orientation. In places where same sex marriage isn't allowed people date throughout their lives are open abt who they are dating nd hence more  visible partners. But discreet dating lives beyond marriage is not limited to gay or bi relationships. That's a very frivolous media stereotype to accentuate 'holy' heterosexual marriages.

I do agree that we don't get to see Nawab's husband and that complicates things. The only way to uncomplicate this is Nawab coming clean to his husband about Karan. He needs to be honest with him. Both Nawab and Karan have been living very dishonest lives, living on broken parts. They both tried to fix it with other people but this meeting was enough to tell them its really never working out with anyone else.

After sleeping together they both  show how they want to get back to the comfort of their underwhelming lives because of this was too much. But we know how Karan actually feels. And one look at Nawab when Karan says am sorry is telling enough how he feels too. He just has to be honest with his spouse and they need to work on their major trust issues. This was definitely not a hook-up though. No way. For Nawab this is validation for the love he's shown Karan once upon a time. I'm sure once he moved out of that school he questioned the depth of their  relationships and what little he meant to Karan. So this liberates him of those thoughts. And Karan could tell his greatest,deepest secrets to Nawab. Someone he hasnt seen in ages only because he's still the only one his heart trusts. Doing whatever he did to Nawab was the greatest burden Karan was carrying throughout his remaining teens and adult life. Nawab's forgiveness liberates him. Nawab fixed him. Them getting together has far more psychological implications than  just physical. 

I will respond to each post because I want to :P but I just wanted to make one observation: did anyone else feel like the landlord was intentionally meant to parallel what Karan did to Nawab? The landlord had feelins for Karan, and ultimately he outs him because he is scared of being outed himself. That's what Karan did to Nawab. A dose of karma from life.

I never really thought before this while watching that the landlord had feelings for Karan. I always thought that he was just a closeted gay who envied the way Karan led his gay life quite openly (even though not all people knew about Karan's sexuality, I do think he was quite open about it whenever he thought he wanted to be, or rather could be). Now that I look back, perhaps, the landlord did have slight feelings for him. I am still not quite sure though. 

However, did anyone notice how the wife was fully aware of the landlord's real self? Her reaction to the video in his laptop made it pretty clear and I think it was this fear on his part that made him waste no time in giving Karan up to the police. Had she not found the video, how long would the landlord have delayed giving it to the police? Or, would he even have had a change of heart?

Karan's anger receded towards the landlord when he found out about his closeted sexuality depicting how things here can not be seen only through the shades of black and white. What the landlord did was absolutely horrible, however, you could still understand where it all came from. All his life he was made to believe through social conditioning that it was absolutely not okay for him to be himself. That it was dirty until his own daughter in Karan's defense told him it was okay to be who you are. That the society had no right to judge you. In the same way, despite Karan's heartbreaking behavior towards Nawab in the past, you can still see why he did what he did. In that vulnerable moment, his mom had ensured that Karan felt horrible about being the way he was. I believe the writers did a good job here showing us how things for the gay/lesbian community are different from how things are for the rest of us. Despite their actions, one is able to see that the young Karan wasn't a cold-hearted bully, and the landlord wasn't an evil person out to destroy Karan.