Romance and friendship drama shows are a good indulgence. They have a good repeat value because this genre comes with breezy storytelling with no heavy drama, yet they tap into the right emotions. Jee Karda is the new Prime Video Original that takes us through childhood friends who remain together during their adulthood as well. Nothing has changed, but at the core, they know some aspects of their relationships have altered.
Set in Mumbai, Jee Karda begins with a fortune teller predicting the future of the eight kids, and none of them taking it seriously. The whole point of approaching him is for them to have a good time together. Kids as young as them are not ready to understand the magnitude of what the man predicted for them. This sets the tone for Jee Karda because the audience knows the story is about all these eight kids and their lives from here on.
Spoilers Ahead
Rishabh And Lavanya
They are the childhood sweethearts of the group, and their friendship is the core of their relationship. Rishabh proposes marriage, which Lavanya happily accepts but with a hint of doubt. Their relationship in Jee Karda is an embodiment of the amount of care and comfort they share despite being two different people. Rishabh and Lavanya’s wedding plans are thwarted by his half-royal family, who take over their wedding plans, which rubs Lavanya and her mother the wrong way. This is the case of an independent woman who is forced to take a step back in the name of traditions and is not allowed to make any decisions, even for her wedding. This lets the audience also understand that mindsets will never change. Rishabh’s efforts to bring the situation under control go awry because he is trying to make multiple investments for the future and pacify his parents at the same time. The classic case of the groom subconsciously being asked to choose sides.
Melroy’s Abusive Past
Melroy is an openly gay person who was a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of his stepfather. Melroy’s boyfriend, Yavar, is yet to come to terms with his sexuality, but he is an abusive and toxic man who is constantly at loggerheads with him. Their fights work like an aphrodisiac, but Melroy is unable to differentiate between love and manipulation. The abuse he faced as a child might have subconsciously led him to make toxicity a part of his relationship. This is not victim shaming but a way to look at why Melroy thinks being in a relationship that taxes him is normal.
Melroy is unable to get away from the fear of being lonely. He witnesses Yavar losing his mind but refusing to deal with his inability to come out as himself. The breakups and reconciliations are a pattern Melroy has gotten used to, making it difficult for him to end the relationship and understand that Yavar is not the right person, and he badly needs therapy to process what he is going through in terms of his sexuality. He finally confronts Yavar, who chose to get married to the woman of his family’s choice, and lets him know that they are over and that it is time he stood up for himself instead of berating Melroy. This comes across as the right step because it is not Melroy’s job to fix his ex-partner. Yavar himself will have to find a way to either live life openly as a gay man or live the life his family expects. Yavar living a dual life is the case for every gay man who must hide behind a large veil and live a secret life. But again, his circumstances cannot justify the abuse he put Melroy through.
Shahid Ansar
Shahid comes from a lower-middle-class family in Mumbai and struggles to come to terms with this financial situation. This is the case with every family in Mumbai that lives in small spaces because one has to earn a great deal to afford a spacious home. Shahid was always a part of the group, but at many instances he has felt left out. As a child, he was a victim of physical abuse from his father, which made him a sensitive person. He is trying to process his feelings from childhood and deal with them maturely, unlike the others in the group. Shahid is a teacher who is not enjoying his current place of work because it does not serve the purpose he is looking for, but he falls for a new teacher at school, Aayat, and she seems to like him too. This shows Shahid is willing to make himself vulnerable to get closer to Aayat, a quality every woman seeks in her potential partner.
Sheetal And Sameer
Jee Karda begins with the celebration of their third anniversary, but sadly, Sheetal isn’t happy with the situation she and Sameer are in. Sameer runs a family business and lives with his family of eight in a tiny 2 BHK without any privacy for their intimate moments. The predicament of living in Mumbai is that there are too many people and too little space to accommodate. Sheetal’s craving to have her own space is constantly ignored because of Sameer’s unwillingness to understand what she wants. Sameer comes from a joint family and does not believe in being physically separated from the family for fear of society. He is the kind of person who is willing to sacrifice intimacy with his wife for the sake of family. Sheetal’s suffocation is palpable, but she is holding onto this marriage because she loves Sameer and hopes he will change his mind.
Arjun Gill, AKA AG The OG
Arjun is the celebrity rapper who is basking in the glory of his successful music career, but he remains himself for his friends. Arjun Gill is the embodiment of a good friend who has not forgotten his circle or his roots and keeps them around as a reminder that they will always be honest with him. He struggles with his own intimacy and relationship woes, but those are not his biggest concerns.
Preet
Preet is a person who is struggling to hold on to her romantic relationships, which end in early breakups, a pattern she is unable to crack. Her job as a therapist is to help her patients solve the problems that stagnate them mentally, but the generalization that a therapist would know the answers to their problems is incorrect. Preet is proof of how people in her profession are unable to understand what she is going through, and they might also require a therapist to sort out their issues.
Ending Explained: Who Informs Rishabh Of Lavanya’s Infidelity? Why Was Shahid Angry At His Friends?
The wedding plans begin to take a toll on Lavanya thanks to Rishabh’s family. Things begin to heat up between the couple because Lavanya is not willing to compromise on things that would demean her family. All Lavanya is asking is to be treated as an equal and with respect, and this makes sense because only her words should matter when it comes to the wedding.
Lavanya’s suffocation due to his family’s presence is understandable because they pile their expectations on her. Rishabh’s family is a classic case of people of a certain generation who have not moved on from times when a woman was expected to be shy and coy and listen to her elders instead of making decisions on her own. The perplexing part about the scenario is that the two of them have been together since they were kids, and was Lavanya never aware of their old school point of view, or was it Rishabh who never let her see it? It seems the makers skipped the portion where Lavanya should have known who his family is because everything they say or do is a shocking revelation for her. An odd storyline with loopholes in it.
Arjun is charged with plagiarism by a renowned singer, who reveals on national television that he is his father. It’s quite an odd place to make that claim because he could easily come across as a fraud who wants to step into the limelight at the cost of Arjun’s popularity. Arjun was raised by his single mother; they never spoke of the father because they did not want to discuss a person who was not a part of their lives. But Arjun’s mother does not dispute the elderly singer’s claim. She only reveals that his father is an awful man, and she was left with no choice but to leave him. This could be an indication of the abuse she must have faced.
Arjun spirals as he is unable to come to terms with this revelation for all his life he has been fed a lie. His predicament is understandable and his mind is filled with many questions for his mother and his estranged father, who never bothered to get in touch with him but was ready to go to the media to talk about being Arjun’s biological father. The sense of betrayal is what bothered him. He only wants his friends by his side right now, which is expected because that’s what friends are for.
At the party the night before their wedding, another flare-up between Rishabh and Lavanya leads to her leaving the venue out of frustration. Lavanya always had a platonic friendship with Arjun, and it is established from the beginning that Arjun is closest to Rishabh. In the heat of the moment, Arjun and Lavanya end up sleeping together, which was unfortunately witnessed by Shahid. This happened because Lavanya was looking for a way to let out her anger, and Arjun too was looking for a way to channel his disturbed state of mind, but that does not justify their actions. Ever since, the two are wracked with guilt, even though Rishabh and Lavanya end up getting married. Lavanya feels like a broken person because of her infidelity. Her feelings are natural because it was not a one-night stand with a random stranger. Lavanya almost breaks down at several instances because she feels a marriage cannot be built on lies and mistrust. She is sure her marriage will fall apart if Rishabh learns of this, and their group would be asked to take sides, which would make a bigger mess. Arjun again feels distraught over his actions. His one moment of weakness would cause trauma for a lifetime. His feelings are valid, and it would probably force him to stay away from the couple he was once close to.
Shahid quit his job with his current school because the administration, students, and Aayat never gave him the respect he deserved. This hurt him, but he channeled this pain into helping the street kids get into a local school. His decision suits him because he always wanted to get into a workspace that benefits the needy. He requests his friends and especially Arjun to come for the small event organized for the street children, but to his disappointment, no one shows up. This confirms his assumptions that the group never acknowledged his pain and struggle and always took him for granted. His sensitive side is something no one understood, and they refused to be there for him in his time of need. Shahid’s feelings are valid because, as a person from a not-so-rich background, he had to work hard to get to the position that he is in, and his insecurities are understandable as well. The fact that his friends never empathized with his issues and kept pushing him to the corner made him snap at Preet’s birthday party, revealing that he was witness to Lavanya’s infidelity and Arjun’s betrayal. Shahid might regret this move, but right now his resentment towards his friends has been brewing for a while. This outburst is a reminder of the iconic scene in Dil Chahta Hai, where Sid confronts Aakash about his mindset and his inability to understand his friend’s feelings. But it was too late for everything to be sorted out because it does not look like they will reconcile.
Jee Karda ends with the venue of Preet’s birthday party, which happens to be Rishabh’s new restaurant, catches fire, and moments before was Shahid’s big reveal to the entire group. Rishabh is arrested for the accident that happened under his watch, but jail time is the last thing on his mind. All of them are in shock right now and wonder if there is a way to salvage their friendship. Their commute to the police station is intercut with the scene of the predictions made by the fortune teller, and all of them turned out to be true. A prediction they never took seriously, but coincidentally or not, things did transpire oddly the way the man had said years ago. The show ends with Lavanya revealing that the most horrible part is that she loved it with Arjun, which implies that this is the guilt that has been killing her. She may have been wondering if she did the right thing by marrying Rishabh after all, but since there was nothing she could do to get out of it, she will have to live with the guilt and never pursue Arjun. The group is probably heading toward a breakdown.
