A holiday with childhood friends is always an exhilarating experience. And when it’s a holiday to sun-kissed, surrounded-by-sapphire-seas Mauritius, it has the potential to turn into one of the most memorable events of one’s life.
Zoom Studios’ latest web series, The Holiday, takes us on a holiday to magnificent Mauritius with the wild and wacky foursome of Mehak, Patrick, Kabir and Armaan, played in the show by Adah Sharma, Priyank Sharma, Veer Rajwant Singh and Aashim Gulati respectively.
The Holiday streams on The Zoom Studios, and has been created by Lakshya Raj Anand. The series has been written by Nishant Goyal, while Nikhil Gandhi and Farhn P Zamma are the producers. Nirmit Kalasha is credited with writing the screenplay.
Mehak is engaged to be married to Siddharth, the love of her life, amidst her apprehensions regarding his parents’ acceptance of Mehak. When Siddharth decides to go on a bachelor trip with his friends, Mehak longs to do the same. But the question of girlfriends or the lack thereof, makes her hesitate on realizing her desire.
Mehak’s childhood friends, Patrick, Kabir and Armaan – all guys – step in to do the needful, and Mehak embarks on her singularly unique bachelorette to the sea-locked land of Mauritius, the only girl in the motley crew.
Once in Mauritius, the group lives it up – drinking, dancing, partying, and gallivanting around the picturesque island nation in a gorgeous convertible. Along with the oodles of fun, however, they come against quite a few setbacks – they have to vacate several hotels in the middle of the night for silly reasons, spend the night at a newly-acquired friend, Sara’s (Serbian model, Natasa Stankovic) home because of their homeless status, and even grapple with an artistic ghost they’ve invoked via an Ouija board.
Three episodes of the web series have been aired as of now, each a burst of psychedelic colours and electrifying vignettes. Adah Sharma, as bride-to-be Mehak, looks beauteous in her web debut, and we must say, she is a welcome addition to the ever-expanding digi-scape. Aashim Gulati, as Armaan, lends the series a hip and cool quotient with his effortless charm, adding a classy sophistication to the proceedings.
Priyank Sharma is a revelation in a never-seen-before avatar – he’s gregarious and garrulous. He struts about like a peacock and is dressed to kill in outlandishly colourful clothes that show off his bare, clean-shaven chest and rippling muscles. Priyank’s transformation as Patrick is breath-taking; it is a far cry from the strong, silent and sedate characters we’re so used to seeing him play.
Veer Rajwant Singh, who we loved in the What The Folks franchise, acts as the voice of reason amidst the crazy bunch. He’s cute, calm and composed, and a pleasure to watch. His Kabir is embroiled in a fiasco with his boss and he’s been saddled with the unpalatable job of completing a difficult presentation in the middle of his holiday. Something is brewing between him and Sara, a proposition that maybe explored in subsequent episodes.
The story arc hasn’t developed much as yet, given that only three episodes have been aired until now. The web series is high on style, with very little substance, if any. And by the way it is progressing, though, we hardly expect anything earth-shattering to happen in the later episodes. The Holiday seems to have borrowed its premise from Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, albeit, minus the emotional and existential concerns that challenged the protagonists in the seminal Bollywood flick.
The Holiday is a decent watch if you have time to while and nothing better to do. If, however, you’re looking to watch something cerebral and ponderous, give it a wide berth.
Meanwhile, 2.5/5 is our rating for The Holiday.