Dramas & Dreams

Updated :

The Grand Reveal was slow to come but surprisingly realistic in terms of how Mauli took it.  Aditi Dev Sharma has been stellar in the last few episodes in portraying the disbelief, heartbreak, disgust, anger , regret and a wide range of feelings that any woman cheated upon would feel.  The dialogues given to her, her scenes with both Kunal and Nandini are hard hitting and do not spare the cheating protagonists in anyway.

The track  post reveal has been very tightly scripted and has belonged totally to Maulee. Kunal & Nandini come out as highly immature and careless for their big mistake, and shown at best as sorry figures- which is exactly how it should be. 

It’s a rare occasion when protagonists are getting the hate and rightly so- an experiment that has been more or less successful.  The story has pretty much been told and ending it now with a divorce wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Nandini seems to be getting more hate than Kunal- however in my opinion Nadini’s character’s fault is explanatory- she is a dependent woman, badly treated by an abusive husband- a creeper who is bound to latch on to any support that comes her way. Her falling in love with Kunal and not being able to stop herself  sits well with her character and back story. It’s Kunal who has absolutely no reason to go astray. He had a perfect marriage and a devoted wife . He has no back story which made him look for love outside a marriage. So he is the actual culprit , on more degrees than Nandini.

 

Original:

So after a considerable lull at D&D, l am back with my two cents on a show. I have realised writing about TV shows is a tough job because there aren’t many that are watchable – and when you don’t watch a show , how do you write about it?

Well you must watch and you must write. That’s how you run a TV blog- you write about stuff that’s good, average or even unwatchable. So with this realisation , I have decided to review a show that is currently being watched,even though it has major problems. Why is it being watched you ask? I don’t know. Guilty pleasure? Maybe. A long leave ? Maybe. Netflix subscription expired? Definitely.

So Colors has this show running  called Silsila badalte Rishton Ka. If you think that’s quite a long name for a show, you apparently are not familiar with Indian TV. I pretend that I am so I will move on from the title and get to the story.

The theme is not new but  still quite daring as it attempts to deal with an extra marital affair sympathetically. I call it daring because let’s face it, we are all pretty righteous when it comes to our TV. Real life? Now that’s a different story- but TV must never stop playing the role of the moral science teacher we all ignored in school.

So Kunal and Maulee have a marriage of dreams- they are  much in love and live rather happily with Uber cool in laws. So no saas bahu drama here, sorry.

The drama starts with Maulee’s best friend from college, Nandini , making a re entry into their lives. She is the classic damsel in distress with an abusive husband and she  is practically screaming to be rescued and be swept off her feet. So  it’s just a matter of time when Kunal finds the helpless and scared lamb like behaviour impossible to resist while getting irritated with his smart  doctor wife who basically has everything  sorted already. Because , Men!

The show will get some browny points from me for managing to be engaging despite the jaded theme of a love triangle. The actors are doing a pretty good job, despite glaring  flaws in the way their characters are written.

Drashti Dhami, as the pretty clueless woman who is tortured and abused by  her evil husband , brings a vulnerability to the screen, which becomes the anchoring point for the show. She slips effortlessly into the distressed character. You can also watch the show for her wardrobe, if nothing else.The sarees are a dream and she looks so dangerously gorgeous that you start doubting Maulee’s I.Q for not seeing how pushing Kunal towards her at every little excuse is apne pair par kulhadi marna.

Shakti Arora’s Kunal is adorable. He is a cute husband in love with his wife and portrays falling in love with Nandini with a helplessness that brings him all the sympathies instead of any chagrin. He does complete justice to his role of a sensitive man who is attractive because he has his heart on his sleeve..

If not  for anything you can watch the show for Arora’s gorgeous eyes which portray all emotions deliciously.

Maulee’s character , played by Aditi Sharma,has major flaws- she starts out as a busy doctor but  is soon reduced to a lovelorn wife who keeps declaring love for her husband repeatedly- it’s almost as if she is afraid we will forget about it if she doesn’t say it five times in a single episode. Well, that doesn’t seem to serve her much as her best friend goes ahead with the affair anyway.  Also, as the show progresses , she  gets increasingly impervious to anything that’s going on around her. A big plot hole because in no circumstance, a doctor who starts out as being pretty smart and level headed can turn into a clueless , easy to fool wife who is unable to notice what’s going on. On top of it, her friendship with Nandini is also presented like a one sided love story- she revolves and makes everyone in her family revolve around this  reticent friend who has more eyes for Kunal than her.

There is an attempt of course to show Nandini’s dilemma- an over the top scene where she sits under a shower to punish herself for thinking the unholy thoughts but that’s about it. She doesnt resist a lot otherwise, showering Kunal with poetic declarations of love whenever opportunity presents itself.

While the show seems bold enough to show an extra marital affair without passing any judgements – it seems to be fighting an inner battle with this question- How far can you stretch the Indian audience’s sensibilities without offending their TV-is for-family complex?

I have a G.K question- Two people who have been resisting a love that’s too strong and passionate give up one fine day and confess\accept their forbidden love for each other. That out of the way, when they find themselves alone in a house- what would be the inevitable scenario? Passionate love? Physical intimacy?

But not Kunal & Nandini. When they are alone in her house after  a passionate confession , a chaste hug followed by tea is what does it for them. Since they are feeling a little too daring that day, Nandini tops it up with a badam laden kheer. And you think to yourself, all this risk , stealth and cheating for playing ghar – ghar? Why don’t you invite Maulee too- as there’s nothing happening that she would object to!

So here is this show’s dilemma- yes the protagonists are having an affair but in order for them to keep being watched and not judged, it should be a chaste extra marital affair- dancing around the idea that this is  the purest kind of love based on soul connection and no lust. Paradoxical ain’t it?

The characters, as standard for our T.V are mostly flat- either white or black. Most of them white of course- a pity because with this story you could really  play with grey shades with everyone. But Kunal and Nandini inspite of wronging Maulee, come out more as sorry creatures who are struggling with their own  feelings.

Maulee is too good to be true – maybe she can show her bad side once she discovers the affair? The grand mother in law and the the mother in law make up a sweet family  virtually without problems .

The two characters painted in black have gone  way overboard. Nandini’s husband Rajdeep is a sadist who abuses and tortures his wife for the fun of it. Their scenes are abhorring and if you ask me the audience should be offended by the violence more rather than any intimacy between Kunal & Nandini. Since she has started a life of her own, his character seems to be turning more psychotic in stalking and terrorising her.

Maulee’s mother is the saas prototype that has been put there just in case the viewers miss the typical  mother in law figure. She nurses a hatred for Nandini and insults her with typical saas vocabulary every time they are in a frame.

Other than this everything is rosy in the Silsila land – with all the mischief creating responsibility on Rajdeep’s shoulders. The actor is doing a fine job and I might throw something at him if I ever see him in person!

All said and done, despite  all the imperfections, I am presently watching each episode and plan to watch until they keep the story moving.

A definite 3 out of 5.

Glad to receive comments or chappals for this very chalta hai types review.