Audience Perspective: Is Yeh Rishta Kya Kehalata Hai’s Abhimanyu Birla heading in a direction towards ‘Toxic masculinity’?

MUMBAI: Pranali Rathod (Akshara Goenka) and Harshad Chopda (Abhimanyu Birla) have captured the hearts of viewers in the enduring series Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai. Fans adore 'AbhiRa,' and it is frequently trending.

The relationship between Akshara and Abhimanyu has had many highs and lows; they had to fight the world to stay together just to be torn apart. The focus of the next phase will be on their life together after they have been separated.

While Harshad Chopra has garnered a lot of praise for his portrayal of Abhimanyu Birla, the arc of the character is becoming increasingly confusing and fans don’t know what to expect.

Akshara who is still very much in love with Abhi has time and again put him above her family but Abhimanyu is lost in his own thoughts and doesn’t consider her feelings enough. He loves her for sure but his guilt over his sister’s death has put him over the edge. He has always had a short temper but with the current track, the question , ‘Is Abhimanyu acting like a toxic male? Does come to one's mind. 

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While the trope of the hurt hero who does everything angrily to extract revenge while even sacrificing his love, is not new, it is not entirely surprising. There seems to be a wave of hurt heroes on TV right now and Abhimanyu has become one. In the latest promo we see that he does everything in his power to belittle and get Akshara’s brother and Bade Papa arrested. While we understand that he feels guilty and he is being manipulated by the mother, that is not reason enough to toy with Akshara’s feelings. He comes and says what he likes without thinking about how she might feel. But he also says things intentionally to hurt her when the audiences can see that he clearly still loves her. 

Why is Abhimanyu disregarding Akshara’s feelings? Well, only he can tell but him pushing Akshara away and being blinded and plagued by his own thoughts and guilt while gaslighting her is definitely an edge close to being toxic to himself and to her. 

We reached out to the audiences to see how they would react to it and this is what they have to say:

Anushka Singh, said, “We have all rooted for Abhi since day one, but he can’t keep doing this to Akshu, she has gone above and beyond for him but he has to understand that she cannot keep choosing him over her family”.

Ritu Daga said, “He becomes too mean sometimes, we get that he is hurt but isn’t she as well. It is so unfair for him to treat her like that especially when she doesn't have any memories”.

We have complied some twitter reactions for you as well:

Agree Akshu has Fault bt Involving Media where he nvr questioned her infront of Own family even?
Bt Abhi's fault?
His own family literally torturing him n throwing tantrums against his wife n BIL from 1yr n Now His Maa in Coma..
His sanity?
Both r wrng yet victim#yrkkh #AbhiRa pic.twitter.com/ZoKU9qdQSq

— Aparna (@Aparna45056805) September 22, 2022

Some are saying abhi shud be guilty n some are saying akshu shud be
But my take on this is both shud be guilty
Akshu: for leaving abhi clueless n not communicating properly
Abhi: for bringing media n humiliating his wife n g fam n for thinking that akshu prioritises #yrkkh

— Sgian Vidya (@PotnuruSri) September 22, 2022

She says the words shart and anisha aka i think truth reveal is loading and i think she is hurt that abhi even doubted her love for one second #yrkkh
#AbhiRa #HarshadChopda #PranaliRathod #BiggBoss16 pic.twitter.com/KNBQGbulcQ

— ANJALI ARORAFollow Back (@IAMANJALI143) September 22, 2022

Bring it on
This is exactly what I wanted
Abhi is gonna regret his words so badly#yrkkh #abhira pic.twitter.com/pgbEKpvF2A

— (@justfavoritess) September 22, 2022

While Abhi and Akshara have finally come face to face, there is going to be a full blown war as Abhi has just dragged her family through hell. 

Will AbhiRa come out of this stronger or will they fall apart forever, it will be interesting to see!

Stay tuned to TellyChakkar for more updates!

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