Why The Depiction Of Love, Heartbreak, And Closures In Mismatched S2 Is Appealing GenZ

Moving away from the usual hero-heroine love story, Mismatched season 2 explores love from different angles. There were clichés involved, of course, like every other series that deals with romance. But this take on love is rather a fresh one.

The series had several pairs. Our lead pair– “Just a silly boy in love”- lets us know that love comes to us only once; some let it go, while it takes a few trials and errors for some to finally find theirs. This illogical emotion is supposed to be beyond logic or practicalities of life.

Hence, we find Rishi’s mom, Kalpana, finding the love of her life in the middle innings of her life; and getting married to him.

Acceptance of one’s own mistakes, and the consequences of it, plays a huge part in the growth of an individual.

For love, age is just a number, and rightfully so, when Siddharth and the senior most student in his class, Zeenat, portrayed by our favourite Chak De captain, Vidya Malavade. The latter, who has always been very insecure about her age, not only manages to charm her peers with her simplicity, but also her instructor.

And their bond charms us viewers, alike. They implicitly develop a romantic bond after their course is over. But the warmth that they exude scores an extra point for old-school love.

Next on the love list, we have Anmol, who thinks he is not capable of love, finding himself drawn to a girl named Vinny, played by Ahsaas Channna.

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A simpleton, Vinny and Anmol met during their group therapy sessions, but there is nothing like glamourization of instant connection. Vinny was there for anxiety due to incessant online abuse, something that the wired up Anmol used to actively enjoyed for a long time.

Vinny’s character makes him realize his own follies, and it is her once again who helps her make amends with people he has hurt.

If love isn’t growing together, then what is it?

But just as love is real, even heartbreak is

I think much more than Dimple-Rishi, what garnered the attention, and love, from the fans was the pairing of Dimple and Harsh, brought to life by Vihaan Samat. Eazy-breezy summer love turned serious for Harsh when he started falling for Dimple.

Evolving into a dream character, Harsh is always by Dimple’s side, either trying to investigate into the leak of their app-code or trying to calm her down while she is having a panic attack.

For someone who has never experienced a panic attack before, he tried looking up for different techniques that might calm one down, and even sings for her!

Naturally, just like Rishi’s words, for him to let go of Berkeley and to stay back in India, Dimple was his reason enough. It might look every stupid, but is it really that uncommon for us to plan our career around our love?

On the other hand, Sanjana Sarathy’s character Sanskriti, is a bubbly girl, who seems to be pretty easy-going. However, when Rishi breaks her heart, she is bold enough to take the power away from him.

By being the one to break up with him, she refuses to be on the receiving end of the blow of their relationship coming to an end. A power move, indeed!

But it is also not required to stand towering while you’re crumbling inside. Simran was broken after Abhinav’s infidelity came forth, and she gave in to her state of blue. She dwelt on her insecurities, blaming herself, seeking comfort in social media and loneliness, until she was pulled up by her friend.

An end of a relationship is also the loss of a dear one

An end of a relationship is also the loss of a dear one. Misery is increased if you’re the one to have been let down. Hence, grieving it also necessary to move on. Deal it, but don’t dwell on it.

On an amicable note, Harsh dealt it the matured way. His motto – take your broken heart and turn it into art. After all, nothing can express you and your mind better than art.

But before he leaves to do so, he is matured enough to have his closure with Dimple; to clarify what they felt was not something casual on his end. And if Dimple felt the same. The scene was beautifully crafted, and the actors did justice to it.

But that expectation always lingers, isn’t it?

Gen-z approves of this

We have a love-hate relationship with the idea of old-school love, one that was lived by our grandparents. Feelings were more genuine, and life a bit easier, perhaps. But the realities were placed beyond a rose-tinted glass that brought about a rosy picture to it.

Mismatched’s take, or rather takes, on love are realistic. They are individualistic, proving that love, and its consequences, is still a subjective emotion.

Most rom-coms usually portray the women as an independent lady, yet a damsel-in-distress that requires men to save them. This web-series was able to escape that troupe.

Like Bridgerton, there was no hyper-glorification of true love. Each individual, irrespective of their gender, were given the autonomy to choose their love, make mistakes, get their heart broken, yet give a second chance to the experience.

It was a journey, in the most authentic sense.

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