writing a character and how not to lose it

chatting on india forums, sometime in 2014, a dear friend wrote the following in italics. i replied, you can see that below the italicised text. today, i read it by chance. iss pyaar ko made us not just feel, but think... perhaps that's why, it'll always remain significant. or as kk would say, hamesha. or as asr would say, what rubbish.


Some of us were utterly disappointed at how Khushi's character was reduced post the hate marriage. But I don't think its the male writers who have done injustice to this female character as it was females who were at the helm deciding for this show, be it the producer herself or importantly the Star Plus creative head who decides the content of every episode for a show (the one who thought ASR can be killed/ changed just like they could do with some other shows!). The regression of the female lead started much earlier than that where in post Diwali, the girl who once retorted by the pool side while she lost her payal, "Had I known, I would die but wouldn't have come to your place", bravo girl, went amiss! Post Shyam revelation, where she was denied of love by one and was coerced to get engaged to another only to realize him to be a lecher, neither her love importantly nor her pain was highlighted. Except for a couple of sequences post the so called Hate marriage, there wasn't any focus on her turmoil. Everything was left for one's interpretation.  This love story has been about the male protagonist from Day 1 and always meandered the way the he wanted, whether his struggle, denial, guilt, acknowledgement! 

As said in Geeta, "Swadharme nidhanam shreyah, paradharmo bhayavahah" (Better is one's own duty though devoid of merit than that of another well discharged). Isn't that what exactly seem to be the difference between ASR's and Khushi's actions, swadharma of the former and Paradharma of the latter??

This wouldn't necessarily make ASR right, the way he executed it.  Even if he were to ask and believe Khushi, having truly seen Shyam's madness for Khushi (pagalpan, junoon as Shyam said) in order to bear with him for the next 6 months, marrying Khushi would have been the only option, perhaps at her consent but not necessarily family's. But for him, the pain of the knowledge that her mother like sister's trust and marriage was in shambles would still remain! 

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horizon,

well said about the women who were in charge. and i do agree the story is primarily about the male protagonist. that in itself doesn't bother me... it is the bent of the tale, its reason for existence.

where i find a sad lack of responsibility in writing is in the way characters, especially the female lead, have been treated at will. yes, that started way back, not here.

no matter who is your protagonist, when you create characters you have to be true to them... if you are a writer with any integrity that is. to completely ditch the female lead's character, to make her into a meaningless muddle... that i thought was not done... of course, you will manipulate characters, even the main lead, but the task is not to lose them, however hard that might be... that is the  challenge of creative writing...

here i did feel khushi was treated in a most cavalier fashion... made into a caricature when it suited them, and then suddenly achchi bahu bharatiya nari... anything... along the way she was gone. whoever the writer was... the one who executes the words and story... messed up. i did feel a male indifference to a woman's mind here. centuries of patriarchy and seeing men as natural leaders... karta... has its impact on minds, male or female. gul, gautam hegde, ved raj, hitesh kevaliya, whoever started letting khushi become less, was wrong.

when one sees the final scenes of othello, desdemona still feels real... not just othello. many stories are about one principle character, male or female (zee's astitwa did a pretty decent job of portraying a female protagonist but created a memorable male lead too)... but the other characters remain relevant... as they are... not just as a tool. a rather clumsy writer's tool at that.

i do feel writing was ultimately weak. bits of utter brilliance, but no real consistency or commitment of writers... more a show of "cleverness" from time to time... in the middle of it all some lovely lines... but tell me if sanaya and barun were not saying them, would we be swooning?

can't think of anyone else who could have made stuff that was kinda corny sound practically divine, like a life lesson.

loved the geeta quote... still trying to understand it.

but the oft said karmanye badhikaraste comes to mind... that went missing, too much concentration on the fruit of action.



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