desipotatoes

[desipotatoes]

Hello! Hope your week has been well. I’ve just watched the show for the first time but unfortunately my Hindi is a little weaker than I would like so I’m not sure if this has been covered on the show or maybe in your asks? I’m sorry if this is a repeat question. I was just wondering if we know about the Raizada family specifically, in terms of whether they’re meant to have generational wealth/is the house ancestral or if Arnav built it. Arnav is “self made” but I’m not sure whether we’re meant to understand the Raizadas as independently wealthy or if the wealth we see is all due to AR doing well as a company. For other Gul shows I’ve noticed class differences are shown thru dialect but Nani seems to be speaking the same dialect as the Guptas so is hard for me to tell. Thank you!

Hello there!

Welcome to Jalebi Weds Bluetooth <3 I love your ask!

I do think I have answered something regarding this but there's never been an in depth answer to this so I'm glad I can think about this!

LONG ANSWER ALERT

Regarding The Raizada's Wealth

Arnav comes from generational wealth from both sides of his family. The Maliks and the Raizadas are incredibly wealthy. I'd say the Raizadas wealth comes from textiles and land. There's nothing concrete here but in Anjali's party Mama-ji does refer to old clients and there seems to be discussion of land, mills in the little business conversations we have in the show.

We know Arnav and Anjali have no wealth from the Maliks' end as Arnav's uncle fraudulently claimed all assets after his brother's death and squandered that away. And I guess by the time Devyani (Nani) brought the kids to her place, the Raizadas were suffering financially as well.

The Raizadas were rich, rich enough to send both the kids - Akash and Arnav - abroad for education (I assume Akash went as well). Harvard is an expensive university - even if we consider Arnav and Akash got scholarship for their degrees.

So I think with the failing wealth of the Raizadas, Arnav probably set up his business idea early on - leaning into the textile background of the Raizadas - and capitalized on that by making a high end fashion brand. And we also know that Mami sold all her jewelry to back Arnav's idea. I'd assume he started thinking of this when he was 18-19. I also feel Arnav never had a childhood after the death of his parents and was very much invested in establishing financial security with the Raizadas ever since he was a teen.

Every memory Arnav brings up of childhood are of days before his parents died, even the ones with Nani and Akash and in the earlier episodes Akash often stated in subtle ways that Arnav grew up very quickly.

So, in the show, Arnav re-establishes the economic status of the family (the Raizadas have always maintained a social status, they never quite disappeared like the Maliks). Arnav only strengthens the social status even further.

Shantivan is a new house. I'd assume the previous Raizada properties were either as a guarantee for loans, sold off or are much smaller compared to what Arnav built for his family.

In the show it is stated several times that Shantivan is Arnav's house (that he bought it) and in lieu of that he is the pseudo head of the family. Which is why Arnav's approval matters so much. And it is also incredibly interesting to watch the struggle Arnav-Nani have at the beginning for she's morally the head of the house, but financially Arnav is.

Also one thing I firmly believe is right in the beginning of the show Arnav is riding on newly found success. He's almost like a young lion who has tasted his first blood. Unlike Shivaay from Ishqbaaz, Arnav's arrogance and fixation with money and status doesn't stem from generational pride and elitism. It stems from financial and social insecurity. His hatred towards conniving middle class people is a direct repercussion of the people he's had to deal with and his own uncle.

Yes, Arnav has never been poor to get to the streets.

But he has faced his assets being stripped away, his family giving up all their money for his education and business idea, and an insecurity over everyone's financial future.

No wonder he was pushed to ensure his family just doesn't get rich, but filthy rich for seven generations.

He is a self made man. Yes he had resources, contacts, backup - but let's simply say that if Arnav didn't exist then the Raizadas wouldn't be having the financial status they had today.

So yes, every sign of wealth we see today is due to Arnav and the empire he built. I think it's very clever how he incorporated his family's textile business.

It's a pity the show really didn't explore this part because it's fascinating! (And Arnav should've been 28 because 26 is an unachievable age for this! If he was a tech guy I'd get it!)

Coming to dialect, I think all the elders in the Raizada household have a strong Lucknowi/UP accent - which is similar to what all the Gupta elders have. While Anjali doesn't have an accent, her Hindi shows her to be very well educated and well versed with the language. She doesn't switch much to English and actually has an incredibly polished Hindi.

Arnav and Akash, Arnav especially, have a very 'returned from abroad' accent that speaks for itself. You know these kids didn't just study at an excellent private school, they definitely went abroad. However, their Hindi is clear enough for you to know that they were raised in India for a significant time.

Also you made an interesting observation about all the elders having similar accents regardless of status. And I think we could factor in what influences accent. I don't think the Raizadas interacted much with foreigners, and learned Hindi in Lucknow - hence the strong Lucknow/UP accent. Definitely they're well versed with English, but prefer not to use it. So since they're usually speaking Hindi - we see their accents. Mamiji tries really hard to speak English because of her fixation with status but we know it works quite the opposite!

Since they all speak Hindi and were very much in their Lucknowi roots, we can see a strong overlap between the way they speak and the Guptas!

The class difference is understandable in the difference of the younger generations' accents. There's hell and heaven difference between Arnav and Khushi's accents. Arnav's Hindi was originally much stronger in the show (in fact there was quite a bit of Urdu there), but he definitely doesn't have the fluency Khushi has (he struggles to read complicated words) whereas Khushi's English has a thick accent and she struggles to speak it fluently (I guess because she had none to speak that language with, you can notice her English get better as she spends time with Arnav because she absorbs a lot with him). Just through dialogues alone you can sense the difference in status between Arnav-Khushi.

However that's not the case with Akash and Payal. Akash has a stronger grip in Hindi and Payal has a stronger grip in English that makes it audio-wise impossible to understand their class difference. Which probably explains how and why their class difference didn't come into the way of them falling in love. It was so easy.

And the Raizadas and Guptas not having a dialect barrier explains why they gel together so well.

Also in other Gul shows it is established that the ML family is established in a metropolitan city for ages which is why their Hindi is incredibly posh while the FL family's dialect is influenced by their locality.

And what's most interesting is that the class difference between the Raizadas and Guptas isn't in their accent but in their vocabulary. Devyani's language is more commanding, direct, polished. She's like "sab ke sab kahaan marr gaye, waqt se aage mat jayiye" - a lot of polished, wise metaphors.

Buaji/Madhumati is like "Sasur ki naati, naas piti, haye re Nandkisore" - phrases that an elite family simply won't utter!

Last thing I love about the language in the show is how Arnav gets better in speaking, wording his emotions over time (especially in Hindi, he usually reverts to English when he's very passionate) and how Khushi absorbs his vocabulary, accent and tone (ugh talk about Sanaya's FANTASTIC acting).

Ok I had A LOT OF FUN WITH THIS.

I hope I made sense?

Best,

JWB

#ipkknd #iss pyaar ko kya naam doon #arnav singh raizada #khushi kumari gupta #character analysis

[desipotatoes]

#wahaj ali #pakistani drama #desi aesthetic #desi romance #reblog if you use

[desipotatoes]

candlelit 🕯️

#wahaj ali #pakistani drama #desi aesthetic #desi romance #reblog if you use

[desipotatoes]

lagta hai impress karne ki koshish ki jaa rahi hai. dekhte hai yeh koshish kab tak kamyaab rehti hai.

[Image ID: three gifs of Wahaj Ali as Murtasim Khan from Tere Bin episode 15. Each gif has the original Urdu text with the English subtitle underneath, and all text is his internal monologue:

GIF 1: Murtasim turning his face up towards the moon, deep in thought about something. The text reads, “Oh, Khudaya.” The subtitle reads, “Oh, God.”

GIF 2: Murtasim’s eyes opening as he stares up at the sky, as if searching for answers. The text reads, “Kya ho raha hai mujhe?” The subtitle reads, “What is happening to me?”

GIF 3: Murtasim looking down then off the side, his tongue darting out to wet his bottom lip. The text reads, “Jitna mujhse door jaa rahi hai, main utna hi uske taraf kheecha jaa raha hai.” The subtitle reads, “The further she goes from me, the more I’m being pulled towards her.” in regards to Meerub.

/end ID]

#wahaj ali #murtasim khan #pakistani dramas #tere bin #desi aesthetic #desi romance

[desipotatoes]

WAHAJ ALI for REPUBLIC (by Omar Farooq)

#wahaj ali #desi aesthetic #desi romance

[desipotatoes]

#wahaj ali #pakistani drama #desi aesthetic #desi romance #reblog if you use

[desipotatoes]

Lakshmana's furious anti-Agni Pariksha rant in defense of Sita in 1987 Ramayana -- that too when he has been stridently loyal to Rama throughout the epic, and his willingnesss to take up arms against his own brother -- has cleared my acne, watered my crops, and cured my depression whenever I listen to it.

[IDs in alt text]

[desipotatoes]

I vote you rewrite this movie with the same cast. For catharsis. In exchange I offer a homemade cookie 🍪 and ver public support!

Was just reading your Padamavaat fics and wondered, if you had to rewrite the story of the film within the scope of the original ending, what changes would you make to plot or characterisations? Like, an adaption of the legend was always going to end in jauhar, but your way of writing the women and their motivations feels far more real, even though you dislike the ending.

AHAHAHAHA OH POOR ANON HERE I GO.

Above all I would most like to change the movie so it doesn’t specifically focus on literal children being, presumably, peer-pressured into the fire. For one thing, I believe in real life, children and pregnant women were smuggled out of the fort and excluded from the ritual. For another, the movie already ignores the narrative of anyone who isn’t a high caste warrior and/or wife, so do we really have to have the horribleness of children being forced into self-sacrifice rubbed in our faces?

*shudders*

That said, I think you are spot on when you say that the film really had to end in jauhar --anything less would feel like a cheat. I absolutely understand that--but from a narrative standpoint, my problems with it are (1) the fact that Padmavati never really articulates her motivations and (2) the lack of any other options presented for the women.

So. Starting with (1)--yes, Padmavati gets that big speech to the other women about valor and HONOR!, etc. and in her goodbye to Ratan Sen, gives that nauseating speech about how she must take his permission even to give up her life--

(Apologies. But. You guys, even Sita, who usually--though unfairly--gets turned into an excessively devoted wife in most mainstream media very much believed that her life was her own and not her husband’s, to the point where she outright defies him in returning to her mother/effectively committing suicide. The sheer horror of that dialogue makes me shudder all over again)

--but that said, what prompts her. Is it that she’d rather die than be made a prisoner? Is it that she knows Alauddin’s character well enough that she knows that failing to capture her will break him more than defeat on the battlefield? *throws hands up, because your guess is good as mine*

Or, I propose a change that would honestly work with the rest of film as scripted/directed, albeit probably come off very controversial: have Padmavati, disgusted by Ratan Sen’s disrespectful behavior both during and after her rescue of him, realize that both her husband and her enemy are equally bad, and that, therefore, whether Chittor wins or loses, she will still be in the hands of a man she cannot love or trust. Have her--in a shoutout to Sita, honestly--throw herself into the fire, if you must, so that they both can’t have her, as neither of them deserve her. Have the film really bite into its misandrist undertones, because surely I’m not the only one who watched Ratan Sen and just. recoiled with horror?

Also, Padmavati aside, I really wanted to see--well, options for the other women, Even if you say that a woman would rather kill herself than be abused by the invaders (a valid choice! that’s fine!), I hate the implied victim-blaming of those who decide that they’d rather take their chances with the invaders, or those who’d rather die fighting, or those who’d rather try and escape, or--

The point is there is no one right way to be a woman, and I hate that the movie breaks down its roles to either Rajput swords or Rajput bangles (also, in a really gender-essential way, but that’s a different discussion). Even a quick cut of some women being offered the chance to fight/escape/something, and taking it, would allow me to watch that final scene with the awe I am meant to feel rather than the horror. Because in all those women, you guys know there were at least a few who didn’t want to go through with jauhar, and didn’t feel they could speak up--and that , to me, is chilling.

Another way to solve this problem, TBH, is to make the film’s Mehrunissa’s, too. Make her more than the sad cipher she is for most of the movie--for example, can you guys imagine the movie starting with the shot of the desert and the ostricth and Mehru’s voice narrating, “We none of us guessed what he would come to mean for us...” (Mehru would add more color and personality as a narrator than Generic Woman Voiceover.

Pair Mehru and Padmavati’s stories--as Padmavati adjusts to Rajput customs, Mehru navigates the court she grew up in, now turned upside down by Khilji’s chaos. As Padmavati tries to bond with Nagmati, have Mehru reach out to and interact with Jhatyapali. Give Mehru a voice, so that the movie’s not just one woman’s story, but many others--and then, as a bonus, you can lose the annoying and redundant scenes of “....did you know Khilji is crazy” and the weird and historically inaccurate homophobic nature of Khilji and Kafur’s interactions. (Why couldn’t they just take delight in each other’s wickedness, even if they had to both be villains? Why is Khilji so OTT abusive, and Kafur gross and depraved? Why are their scenes honestly just used to mirror the Wholesome Heterosexual Love of Ratan Sen and Padmavati?)

what that gives you, then, is an end where Mehru--in contrast to Padmavati--is a woman who chooses to survive, so that you give equal screen time and respect to both choices women made in those days, rather than just one. And plus, having Mehru’s wistful voiceover narrate Padmavati’s sacrifice warms my shipper heart would hypothetically end the movie on a “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story” note (to paraphrase Hamilton), and hopefully dig into the characterization of both women.

I’m sorry for the enormous essay! Thank you for the interesting question and lovely compliments :)

#padmavaat #padmavati #padmavati x mehrunissa #mehrunissa #all hate to this movie is justified #this could have been so much better #also why does Deepika have so much queer energy #kashibai and mehrunissa #such period gay aesthetic

[desipotatoes]

I love your tags @stylinsuns 🥳🏳️‍🌈 They made the post!

Disclaimer: Padmaavat is a terrible movie.

But

{As much as a story about Alauddin and Malik Kafur would be AWESOME...}

I would kill to see more of Padmavati and Mehrunissa. Two queens, fierce and beautiful and too good for their hot mess husbands, being in love and exploring the limits their time placed on women and their love.

The sheer chemistry between Hydari and Padukone on screen — the first time they see each other and Mehrunissa is so awestruck she can’t speak, or the eye contact as Padmavati is escaping with Ratan Singh.

The opportunity to hear them call each other Padma and Mehru!

💔

[desipotatoes]

A Hero's Entry

#prithvi vallabh #munj #ashish sharma #a poet’s entry #a hero of the people #indian fantasy #historical fantasy #indian tv serial #I’m in love with his eyes #he has actual eye dialogue #like wtf my man #can you dial down the pretty

[desipotatoes]

A Warrior's Entry

#prithvi vallabh #historical fantasy #indian fantasy #indian tv serial #indian drama #warrior queen #mrinal #princess mrinal #sonarika bhadoria #hbic #bossbabe #bosslady #she could run me over #and then i fell in love #in my head we're married #my gifs #reblog if you use #like if you use

[desipotatoes]

Dude this looks so fantastic. Help!

#prithvi vallabh #munj #ashish sharma #mrinal #princess mrinal #sonarika bhadoria #not my gifs #credit to owner #They are so pretty #this isn't fair #but also I love this #writing inspiration

[desipotatoes]

I am obsessed with the aesthetics of this show! 

Munj aur Mrinal

Prithvi Vallabh - Itihas Bhi Rahasya Bhi (2018)

#prithvi vallabh #munj #Ashish Sharma #mrinal #princess mrinal #sonarika bhadoria #not my gifs #credit to owner #they look so good #the bisexual dream #historical fantasy #indian fantasy

[desipotatoes]

Disclaimer: Padmaavat is a terrible movie.

But

{As much as a story about Alauddin and Malik Kafur would be AWESOME...}

I would kill to see more of Padmavati and Mehrunissa. Two queens, fierce and beautiful and too good for their hot mess husbands, being in love and exploring the limits their time placed on women and their love.

The sheer chemistry between Hydari and Padukone on screen — the first time they see each other and Mehrunissa is so awestruck she can’t speak, or the eye contact as Padmavati is escaping with Ratan Singh.

The opportunity to hear them call each other Padma and Mehru!

💔

#if only Bollywood wasn’t a coward #padmavaat #rani padmavati #padmavati #padmaavat #mehrunisa #mehrunissa #padmavati x mehrunissa #padma x mehru #deepika padukone #aditi rao hydari #sanjay leela bhansali #bollywood

[desipotatoes]

#rangrasiya #rang rasiya #ashish sharma #sanaya irani #rudra #paro #parud #not my gif #not my work #indian tv shows #itv #love this coloring

[desipotatoes]

#ishqbaaaz #ishqbaaz #gauri kumari sharma #shrenu parikh #rikara #shrenu parekh #tellywood #indian tv shows

[desipotatoes]

‘Palkon ki baand ko todd ke daaman par aa gira, ek aasun meri zabt ki tauheen kar gaya’.

(text : not mine)

#tellywood #ishqbaaz #ishqbaaaz #gauri kumari sharma #rikara #shrenu parikh #shrenu parekh