I have always liked Gulkand - I feel she is the only person in that entire family that has no fear in calling a spade a spade and speaking the truth. However with that said - I do feel CVs have failed to do justice to her character - as it was introduced to us viewers.
Initially Gulkand was portrayed as a loud, foul mouthed, short-tempered lass with a remarkable sense of justice. Her heart is "usually" in the right place - I say usually because her anger towards the Prasads stems from the love she has for her brother and and an inability to tolerate anyone taking him for a ride, anyone being cheated - any form of injustice. I'm assuming having been brought up by her brother single handed, she loves him fiercely - she's the kind that once she's in your corner and she lets u in - she'll stay loyal and fight tooth and nail for you - for as long as she can. In light of this I also feel she learned very quickly that the world doesn't respect kind hearts, "nice" people - those people get walked over ALL the time - case in point Payal and her family.
So this is my take on the characterization of Gulkand - initially. Now what we are seeing is in my opinion out of character or a diversion from the initial conception of the character.
Gulkand wanted to save Payal from the same fate as her - very noble - that was the right thing to do, could she have handled things differently - yes, would that have been any better - in the real world perhaps but then again this isn't reality and they need drama to keep the show going..
I know some have said that Gul only wanted to save Payal to one up the Prasads - perhaps that would have been an enjoyable by-product of the circumstance but I would really like to believe that her main motivation was to be able to disclose the truth to Payal - out of humanity and her sense/need for justice.
Gulkand's behavior now is odd - Payal's first morning - where she was taunting Payal for cooking a tasteless breakfast and the volcanic episode of yesterday has left me astounded.
The first breakfast morning - her bullying Payal - I get because she's mad at her for knowingly jumping into the well so to speak and instigating her to speak out - giving her a taste of the dynamics in the household etc - all of that was ok but when Rajat appeared - why didn't she spill the truth to him? Better yet why didn't she say = oh hello brother of the bride since I missed the wedding for extenuating circumstances - let me tag along with u to meet the family.
Right now what we're seeing of Gulkand is that she's going full grey - not shades of grey - its turning into a competition of maintaining power and control. Her creating a scene was fine but writers slipped - I would have rather seen her rip the in laws a new one for being so greedy at her wedding but letting Payal off so easy coz she earns.
I did feel a little bad for Payal when Gul burned the saree but TBH Payal totally asked for it - who asked her to be so meek and docile? I really hope Gul is just behaving this way to get a reaction out of Payal. Or perhaps this is to teach Payal that if Payal wants Gul's help in future she's closed that door since she didn't take her help initially?