#rajnibala

[hirakdesherrani]

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[hirakdesherrani]

Thoughts on Rajni (+ grey!Rajni headcanons) 

The main attraction of BHBK for me was obviously Gaurav Khanna, Like I wrote in a previous post, I watched this show recently and pretty much liked it, despite all the random change in tracks. Gaurav Khanna’s character in the show, Krish Vaishnav, is undoubtedly one of the best mls in ITV, if not the absolute best. Other than two instances, the guy never did any misogynist bakvaas. However, there isn’t much to write about him, other than him being so obviously empathetic and lovable. 

I’ll rather use this post to write about Rajnibala Mehta/Rajnibala Vaishnav, one of the earliest characters played by Shrenu. This character is not as stanworthy as her later characters like Astha, Gauri or Jahnvi, but it’s nonetheless quite interesting one. 

Right off the bat, I’ll mention that Rajni is perhaps the most self-respecting character played by Shrenu. That might because she wasn’t encumbered by the Star Plus bahu disease like Astha and Gauri. Rajni didn’t have iconic lines or scenes like Astha, Gauri or Jahnvi, but she was one of the most relatable characters I’ve come across on television, especially for me personally.

Rajni is the last of the main characters to be introduced in the show, a misstep by the writing team, I think. Initially, she comes off as the typical pretty, susheel girl types, nothing home to write about. We see her through Yashoda and Krish’s eyes. 

The first time we get an insight into her character, is when she rejects Krish’s proposal. To Rajni, the fact that he is madly in love with her, so much so that he broke off (rather Paulomi broke off) his engagement for her, doesn’t seem to matter much. She takes the practical view of things. She questions Krish’s fickle attitude and makes it clear that she wants an assurance that he won’t change his mind again, after marriage, and put her through what Paulomi went through. Krish gives her that assurance, and only after that does she agree to the wedding. The audience is told two things about Rajni, that she has strong sense of self-preservation and she has a practical attitude to life, and doesn’t believe much in romance. 

Here I have a Grey!Rajni headcanon to add as well. There’s a scene where Rajni mentions that she likes SRK films, and we know he is the king of Romance. I think Rajni has the same SRK contradiction complex that I do lol (and so do other women too, I feel). We love watching romantic films but we also feel that they are stupid and in real life no man is like a SRK character, that’s why we are stubbornly opposite to the sighing female leads in these films. On top of that, Rajni thought that Krish ruined her sister’s life faking love, that her sister suffered because she believed in love and romance. I think that is what bittered Rajni’s stance towards love. 

This brings me to the second aspect of Rajni’s character. Whether we analyze Rajni as she was originally characterized or we take into account her grey phase, Rajni has always been sex-positive. For her, love and sex are not connected. You don’t have to necessarily love a person to sleep with them. It becomes a little icky if we think from Grey!Rajni’s pov, because she apparently loathed Krish, but Rajni doesn’t open up to Krish until a few episodes after their marriage, so I’ll let that slide. There is a scene, a few days after their wedding, where Krish asks her whether she is in love with him too, and she says not yet. He looks disappointed with that answer, so she asks him, “pyaar hona itna zaroori hai kya?” and he says it is important to him. For Krish, love is essential before taking the next step. This is the usual stance we see on itv, but Rajni’s pov seems to be that as long as two ppl want to sleep with each other, that is fine. I think Rajni was for sex after marriage, irrespective of love, but I can’t be sure of that. Rajni was well, quite a Pakistani serial heroine in that aspect. 

Coming back to Rajni’s character as such, the first track after their newlywed phase establishes Rajni’s character further. The manner in which she handled the issue of Surbhi blackmailed and Vishal’s adoption makes it shows that she is used to doing things her way, to the extent of disregarding other people’s opinions. I’m not a huge fan of Surbhi, but she was right in saying that she had a right to decide when she should reveal the truth of adoption to Vishal, she was his mother after all. Rajni had good intentions and her risk paid off for sure, but it was a risk nonetheless. This track also establishes Rajni as an observant and smart character. 

Both of these personality traits are further highlighted in the next track, one of my favorite track, where there is a stand off between her and Krish. It is so rare to couple in ITV fight about something on ideological grounds rather than the usual family drama or third angle creating misunderstandings. Rajni again convinces the family of her pov about the workers and their plight, and though I supported Krish’s take on the matter, I liked how Rajni advanced her argument. 

What I also liked about this fight was how Rajni was willing to compromise but not beyond a point. She was not willing to lower herself for Krish’s ego, something we’ve got so used to seeing on itv, that I was surprised to see this normal behavior on tv, like yes, this is how exactly I would’ve reacted too. Another thing related to this track, is how Rajni always holds Krish accountable, even for small things like laughing at her English or leaving her behind at the restaurant. Of course, these minor actions on Krish’s part are unintentional but she doesn’t let them go and simmer in pain, putting up a brave face. No, she clearly tells Krish that he shouldn’t have done that. I really liked that about her. 

Though I generally liked the fight track, this was one of the two instances where Krish passes misogynist comments. But he learns from his mistake. He corrects his attitude that wives aren’t porcelain dolls meant for romance, to stay silent and cook food. They have opinions, and he should respect those. In latter half of the show, whenever Krish disagreed or thought Rajni was coming off too strongly, he told her so in a calm manner without dismissing her povs. 

My grey!Rajni headcanon is that the firstly, when preparing herself for playing the part of a poor girl, Rajni actually spent some time among the underprivileged and felt their plight. She actually befriended some of them. Which is why during she speaks up and fights for them, during this track. Clearly, if she was fooling the Vaishnav family, going against them in this issue did her no good, but she still did what she thought was right, because she was an empathetic person and had strong views about right and wrong.

My other grey!Rajni headcanon is that this is the track that made Rajni realize that she’s developing feelings for Krish. Before this all had been hunky dory, but the moment Krish argues with her and stops talking to her is when it struck her that she actually likes him, that their fight is hurting her. This is Rajni’s love realization track for me. The culmination of the track further proves it. When Krish realizes his error and rushes to the accident spot, Rajni has no inhibitions confessing her feelings that the only thought on her mind was that she would die without telling Krish that she loves him too. 

When they go to the resort, I’m convinced that Rajni also wanted to consummate their marriage, and this time out of love. My grey!Rajni theory is that Rajni probably had a spat with Yash and Archana and told them that she believes Krish is not the culprit in Shikha’s case, and that she trusts him. Fearing she was too deep in this, Yash puts it out in the news that Archana is dead, knowing that its the one thing that would make Rajni rush back to them. And it works. Rajni comes back and we have the surrogacy track. 

Surrogacy track was probably the only time Rajni annoyed me. It might be because I’m anti-reproduction/anti-population, but I didn’t understand Rajni’s over-attachment to that kid and just disliked the way Rajni ingratiated herself into Aryan’s life, knowing that he is in a sensitive situation and would get attached to her. Of course, Yash is to blame partly for being a negligent father, and Aryan himself was the most annoying kid in tv, unhealthily obsessed with the idea of a mother, just any mother would do, whether his own or Rajni, simply anyone. I’ll rather call Aryan a child mastermind. 

Anyways, the surrogacy track was the second instance when Krish (and his family too barring Namita and Yashoda) passed misogynist comments. Their attitude was akin to how society claims to sympathize with rape victims but doesn’t think fit to be married to their sons and victim-blames them for what happened to them or its consequences. The family, and more importantly Krish, being unable to accept that Rajni had a surrogate kid, was disgusting. Instead of sympathizing with her as victim of a surrogacy racket, they were pissed that she didn’t tell them the truth about her not being a ‘fresh piece’. Unfortunately, India’s current surrogacy law also thinks the same, which is why it only allows surrogacy for married women who already have a child. Unwed mothers are a no-no in our society, because its the husband’s right to breed his wife, and surrogacy infringes on that right. Never mind that we don’t have such similar laws applying to sperm donation. Patriarchy! 🤢

I didn’t like Rajni trying to make up to the family and apologize but then again the show never made it clear to her whether the family was angry with her about hiding the truth or they were angry with her for being a surrogate. Which was none of their business anyways, because it was before she was married to Krish. But then my body, my choice has only become popular recently, so whatever.

I was relieved that they didn’t stretch this portion of the track beyond two weeks, and Krish returned to being the usual loving husband, who accepted his wife’s surrogate past. My grey!Rajni headcanon is that Rajni experiences the greatest dilemma during this track. She wants to continue hating Krish, but seeing him accept the surrogate child, makes it hard for her. For how could a man, who loves his wife and someone else’s kid so much, harm his sister like that? She doesn’t want to believe the worse of him, so she insists that they go on their honeymoon, claiming that she can’t put her life on hold any longer. I think Rajni wanted to run away from Yash and Aryan, and whole farce they created, and go somewhere with Krish where the world can’t interfere or mess with her head. But of course, the criminal mastermind kid didn’t allow her even that, and came after her on their honeymoon as well.

My grey!Rajni headcanon is that she was genuinely sad when her time with Krish was ending. It was like a dream from which she had to wake up now, and she didn’t deny to herself that during those few months with Krish, she had developed feelings for him. Her sorrow, therefore, was sincere. She was sad that she was leaving him and the family which had showered so much affection on her. 

Coming to the grey!Rajni track itself, I feel that track was self-explanatory. I do wish they had made it lighter instead of a murder mystery. They could have shown that Shikha was harmed because of some accident the Vaishnav’s caused, and Rajni was planted by her parents and sister+brother in law to take revenge from the family. I wish they had made it something like Hulchul, a family rivalry of sorts? The makers were so good with comedy and lightheartedness in the first half of the show, I would’ve genuinely liked that more than anything. Krish convincing Rajni of his love and joining hands with him to unite the two families and remove the differences. We could’ve had everything: Rajni being grey, going through a dilemma hating Krish and at same time being unable to stop herself from loving him, AND we could’ve got lightness and Krijni meeting in secret, all the secret lovers trope, I would’ve loved that. I’m sucker for forbidden lovers trope done properly in a funny way (not Romeo Juliet style). 

The grey!Rajni track made a lot of fans hate Rajni, but I kinda saw it as Vaishnav’s redemption for their slut shaming during the surrogacy track. Moreover, when she was pretending to be something else, she didn’t harm them, she did only good things, be it for Surbhi and Vishal, for their company, or even saving their face with the swing at Janmashthami. Rajni made them love her and then betrayed them later on, but she did it because she thought Krish was her sister’s culprit. As it turned out, the Vaishnav family was involved, just not the son they had thought. Rajni was acting under a misconception, so Krish forgiving her doesn’t seem too strange to me. What does seem rather heartening was he was still so much in love with her, AND not afraid to show it. His feelings getting exploited didn’t make him bitter about baring his vulnerability, and that’s the best quality of Krish Vaishnav, also known as the best ml on itv. 

Anyways, the last track of the show could’ve explored Rajni’s complete character further. She was still strong-headed and opinionated like before, but much more free-spirited now. I wish they had shown more of her fun personality, which only Krish got to see before and after the grey track; I wish the family had seen more of it and accepted their changed bahu. 

It was a short-lived, but I wish we got to see more of Rajni’s personality in the last month of the show, which was again devoted to seriousness. I disliked the Mumbai track for this reason. I wanted the lightheartedness of the first two months of the show. 

So, yeah I’m tired and I can’t remember other stuff I wanted to write, so this will have to do.

[bollywoodmemories]

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