Guys, I have just binge-watched Colors’ new family and supernatural show, Bepanah Pyaar. So pls give me a bit to clear my totally confused thoughts with 2 cups of coffee.
Gulp. Say hello to proud and over-attitude-filled Raghbir Malhotra (Pearl V Puri), who is forced by family to get into a rash of marriages, despite not having gotten over his dead first wife, Bani (Aparna Dixit).
This Balaji Telefilms presentation opens with Raghbir’s marriage with airhead, Misha Arora (Mahira Sharma). The former is not happy but is just going through the motions. He is sick and tired of being told to move on. There were frequent references to ‘I care a damn’ about the media. I wonder why the fourth estate has become such a public villain?
On the other hand, you have his employee, Pragati (Ishita Dutta), who’s the daughter of a Delhi cop (Ravi Gossain). She tames the shaadi ka ghoda that goes wild in a sudden dust storm, thus saving her boss from injury.
But Raghbir’s wedding is called off at the eleventh hour, as a super-rich man’s daughter Sukanya (Devika Singh) marches into the wedding hall, claiming that Raghbir had a thing with her when he was in London after Bani’s accidental death.
Interestingly though, Raghbir claims to have no memory of her. We wonder, in a world of social media, how did she not present proof of their supposed equation.
An obviously angry Misha calls off the wedding; and Raghbir, rather than being apologetic, insults her. To add to the drama, Raghbir’s greedy mom (Ekta Sharma) is ready for his marriage to Sukanya. The scene where Sukanya’s dad boasts about his wealth took us back to old film scenes where the rich girl’s father would humiliate the poor boy.
In the meantime, nok jhok takes place between Raghbir and Pragati, and the latter gets a marriage proposal from an older guy who acts like a young man.
In all this drama, Raghbir agrees to marry Sukanya. But that wedding is also cancelled for Pragati finds evidence to prove that Sukanya was lying.
Great work, but Pragati does all this at a time when her own marriage too is called off as she comes to know her to-be husband’s truth.
Rather than crying about it, she rushes in her shaadi ka joda to her boss ki shaadi to save him.
If you thought this was tough to swallow, the creative goes a step ahead and makes a drunk Raghbir marry Pragati, who silently does the phera rituals.
Raghbir is totally blasé about marrying someone like this, expecting her to walk out. But like an Indian bahu, she comes back to tend to her boozed-out husband on their suhag raat.
One other general point — most shows depict drunkard men suddenly becoming all right. Is this not sending out a wrong message about the dangers of alcoholism?
Just when you think you have seen it all, comes the clincher. Apparently, Raghbir’s first wife’s spirit is haunting the house. And it is this spirit that is driving both Sukanya and the man who wanted to marry Pragati fraudulently.
I did not get one more thing – when Bani died, why was she not dressed in woollens when it was icy cold? Had she not fallen off the cliff, she would certainly have died of hypothermia.
Also, how did he not know that she was not a rich girl when he met her for the job interview? No loaded girl would behave like she does.
Raghbir’s over-swagger sometimes dilutes the audience sympathy for him. The scene where he berates his parents for making a mockery of his love life was full of pathos. We hardly see Pearl act as a normal everyday guy.
Ishita’s character is unable to go beyond the prototype good girl. Hope she takes him to task in the coming episodes.
Raghbir’s family is full of sundry characters. Devraj Malhotra’s character (Ashish Kaul) could have had some more meat, but alas. Let’s hope Tanvi Thakkar has something to do. So far she has just filled the canvas.
Hope all these desperate threads are tied to each other quickly and logically. We understand that heavy duty drama and adding of supernatural is important, yet it needs to be seamless.
No wonder the early ratings are nothing to write home about.
Having said that, I must admit that despite all of the above craziness, I did want to find out more.
2/5 is my rating for Bepanah Pyaarr