Iconic Shivika

ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ's ɴᴏᴛᴇ ~ 11

Ishqbaaaz had ended for me long ago. The moment we stepped into Redux, I took it as a new story. Initially I decided to give it a try but was was only left majorly disappointed by all the happenings and poorly it was written and structured. I still watched it for the sake of it, but I do not associate my love for the show to that phase at all. Season 2 was completely irrelevant for me so there's really nothing I would even want to say about it.

However, now the show has officially concluded as a brand itself. I am on a hiatus from re-watching Ishqbaaaz hence there have been no updates to this book or to my thread in quite some time. I don't know how long my hiatus lasts, but I shall be back eventually. Till then I may choose to add some Author's Notes instead. As of now let's focus on something else.

Pinky Singh Oberoi has been a character that has always been debatable in terms of her character sketch. I would I have a lot to explain in terms of what I think about her but I guess I'll leave you all with what Samrin has to say instead because our point of view regarding Pinky is identical.

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❝ Okay, so, Pinky. Yes, at first, in the initial stages of the show, Pinky was shown to have context to her personality, her behaviors, her beliefs, and her ways. Her insecurities about her social status, about her place in the Oberoi family, and her likability were rightly highlighted. And she was not limited to being another 'over protective, over possessive' mother, whose only motive in life was to hold her grown up son in her lap. But yes, there were very clear hints of her being one of the biggest 'dark influences' in Shivaay's life, and mindsets. She was a huge reason Shivaay was the kind of man he was, or grew up to be, before he changed. Filling his mind with ideologies of power, money, importance of status, and bitterness towards people who did not possess any of these, was highly her doing. So that itself made me dislike her from the very first episode itself. Yet, they kept her comical, and presented her POV a little, so I ignored her. Then, Shivaay and Annika got married, and boom! All of a sudden, a character who was first portrayed as having a little depth at least, was over night turned into the 'jealous and bitter mother-in-law' just to increase the 'drama quotient.' She was just downright mean and disgusting to Annika, there on. The pre marriage phase, maybe she would taunt Annika here and there, but it was as though Annika had become an obstacle for her after Shivaay married her, even if forcefully. She was selfish, unnecessarily angry and vengeful towards Annika, and there was absolutely no good reason provided for her behavior, other than the very lame excuse 'oh, he's my only son, and he's distancing from me.' This was absolutely foolish because Shivaay first of all, never really shared any close relationship with her, but still maintained respect, and second, he never acted in a way that would even suggest that he was replacing her in his life with someone else. He made that clear many times too, but a grown up woman like pinky was too immersed in her hate for Annika, that she did not care. I found it extremely puzzling, the fact that out of everyone, Annika had the most similarity in background, and situations, to pinky, both hailing from a middle class upbringing, etc, yet she was the most nasty to Annika, ALWAYS, about such things and more. That just showed how self absorbed she was, in her evil motives. Whatever chance she would get, she would treat Annika as though Annika was sucking blood out of Shivaay's veins, everyday. And that was just absurd for me, because the creatives provided zero solid reasoning for it. Then came the separation phase, and goodness, what she did, and the way she behaved, NO MOTHER can EVER be like that, even in her dreams. That was just some next level illogical and disgusting ordeal, which honestly, for me, will never be something worthy of forgiving. I still am one of those who believe that the separation had a lot to do with Shivika themselves and the weak points in their relationship at that particular time, BUT, having said that, irrespective of the weakness in Shivika's interpersonal equations, no person, let alone a mother, should get so blind with hate, that they do something like what she did with Annika. And then, after everything, and even after seeing how much her son suffered, she still kept up her mean and nasty act even after the separation when Annika came back. She claimed to 'love' Shivaay, but all she was, was selfish and self absorbed. She was conceited, and her mind was so dark that she unnecessarily hated on an innocent and simple girl just for the sake of it. She had zero justification for her behaviors. A mother who could never understand what her son really wanted in his heart, did not have the right to say, 'but I did it for you.' So, rightfully, when Shivaay found out the truth, he cut ties with her, LIKE HE ABSOLUTELY SHOULD HAVE, and I liked that they kept that up for long. BUT, see, the thing was, at that point Pinky was literally shown to have been mean and nasty and evil with Annika for a year on the show. That is for how long she was the 'bad guy.' So, when they did try to attempt redemption for her, it was so short, so meaningless, and so pretentious, that it looked fake. Her 'sorries' to Annika really did not have any sincerity to them. I never felt like she wholeheartedly meant those words, ever. Even during that pregnancy scare, when Dinky maasi was there, she kissed Annika's hand, and 'apologized,' but HIGHLY due to the fact that she was maybe going to give her a 'pota' and a grandchild. That was the ONLY reason she was, for the FIRST time, being nice to Annika. You see? Even in that, she had her own gain and motive in mind. She was overjoyed with the thought that maybe Shivaay's son will now become the heir after him. So, that 'care' for Annika, fake and highly insincere. Gradually, the scene after they came back from vanvaas, all that 'oh my god, you are my daughter, the care, doing pooja,' and all, was just because at that point she was just glad that someone was there with her precious son during a hard time. So, again, all that concern and love felt very weak, as it felt driven by her concern for her son. It always, always felt like she just 'jhelofied' Annika only because she was his son's wife. It is the same treatment she would have provided a random girl too. Annika really was never anything to her, and all the sudden love and care, without any proper build up really felt lackluster and pretentious. Till her very last scene too, even if as a joke, or in light mood, she was STILL, after everything, first to blame Annika for Shivaay not remembering her birthday. Till the last minute too, it was evident her insecurity never left, and that she would forever feel Annika was her competition. And that for me will ALWAYS be disgusting. She was selfish, with weak morals and ideologies, she made highly unforgivable mistakes, and she was just cruel minded and gave off bitter vibes till the very last memory of her presence. And the main part, after showing her as the bad guy for such a long time, with so many details and such duration, the creatives did absolutely NOTHING to redeem all those 'bad vibes or mistakes' properly, to progress her character. One or two scenes of her emotionless crying in front of Annika, kissing her hands, or playing victim does not qualify as 'redemption' or 'improvement' for me. She did not like Annika, period. After having done so much, her two minutes of regret felt very superficial, hard to digest, nonsensical, and without sincerity. ❞

— Samrin (Twitter: @samrin_s)