STAR Plus’ new fantasy offering, Divya Drishti, seems to be a fun watch so far. What we like most about it is that unlike other daayan shows, which are very drama heavy, this light-hearted narrative comes as a whiff of fresh air. Don’t get us wrong — the above variety too continues to get traction, for example, Naagin (Colors) is still the fiction leader and even Nazar on STAR Plus rules the 11 pm slot.
So the moral of the story is that fantasy is here to stay, naysayers, deal with it. The irony is that while enjoying werewolf and superman tales, we only get edgy, over-the-top desi folklore, which is full of occult powers as well.
The plotline of Divya Drishti is interesting, for they have fused clairvoyance and Pisachini parts. The drama begins in earnest from the very first episode, where you have a pregnant lady, played by Rati Pandey, absorbing the great powers of her guru in her tummy to prevent them from falling in the hands of the evil sorceress, played by Sangita Ghosh.
As a result, both her twins are endowed with supernatural abilities; while Drishti can see the future, Diyva has powers to change the future. The big difference here is that in most future-seeing shows, the positive leads can’t alter what they see, but here they can. Does that not go against destiny? Anyway, that is a theological construct; let’s not go there.
Their powers are first seen at the age of five, when they prevent the dam where their father works from breaking. But Pisachini (Sangita) reads about it in the paper, reaches the place and kills the twins’ parents. They get separated; yes, in a running train. Writers, please be a tad original, maybe they could have gotten lost at the airport?
Both the girls grow up in foster homes. While Drishti (Sana Sayyad) is taken care of by a selfish lady, Divya (Nyra Banerjee) is taken home by loving parents.
Rather than telling you more about the narrative, which you can watch anyway, we prefer to directly get down to the highs and lows of the show.
The characters of both leads are as different as chalk and cheese. Fun-loving Divya does not mind using her magic (stealing the engagement ring), but yes, her actions have a positive spinoff. We are not yet ready for greyish leads.
Drishti on the hand is the more prototype lead. It is not easy to warn others about impending doom without showing your hand. Like we mentioned above, the narrative is quite light.
Sangita is doing a superb job as the sorceress Pisachini. Had they just painted her black, it would have got boring. But here, her quirky one liners and facial expressions are fun to watch. The fact that she looks hot adds to the value. Today, all small screen daayans and chudails look like a million dollars.
Sana is apt for her character. She is bringing out the chemistry with her boss Rakshit quite well. The poor guy does not go beyond the rich akkdu man; have we seen that before?
To be fair, creative wise Nyra gets more to do as Divya, having more juice in her character i.e. gets to play naughty, blackmailing Rakshit’s fiancé Lavanya into getting into the house. She also wants him and openly challenges her sister who is Rakshit’s PA. The sibling rivalry is cute.
Adhvik Mahajan as the main lead Rakshit had an amazing opening sequence where he flaunts his good looks. The man has the charisma and charm to carry out this role. However, the story line with regards to him needs to pick up pace. And with the concept involving the union of the girls and the boy’s powers being talked about, we are sure Adhvik will have a stronger presence.
Down the road, all three (Rakshit, Divya and Drishti) will need to unite to fight the evil.
The best part is that here the female leads don’t hesitate in showing slight cleavage and are not overdressed 24*7. This seems to indicate that finally GEC is smelling the coffee and is ready to fight the web series threat head on.
Riddhima Tiwari too seems to be unable to come out of the loud family member character; here she plays the dumb aunty. Veteran actor Vaishnavi MacDonald also has to be satisfied with just playing the sweet mother, with nothing to do really. Her back story regarding her missing hubby can be explored further though.
We are sure that over time Mansi Srivastava’s character Lavanya will turn negative, when Rakshit will dump her. It will be an interesting change from her current dumb blonde avatar. She also has two equally dumb female friends to complete the canvas.
The CG is quite good, with one of Pisachini’s henchmen turning into a giant lizard and the former’s other actions are a visual treat. The class thrill element when the plane was about to crash was also noted.
The show is in the able hands of Veteran Producer B.P. Singh and his banner Fireworks Productions who has given us amazing thriller and action concepts in CID, Aahat, Shapath etc. Their expertise is truly showing in the end product.
Mukta Dhond who has oodles of experience in the genre of romance and thrillers gets to handle the mantle of being the Creative Producer here. With her handling the creatives, we can say that this weekend show has all the ingredients of a well-written drama. Also, with it rating well, there will be no pressure on the producer to change, so we can expect the current flow to continue for a while.
We, at IWMBuzz, rate Divya Drishti 3.5.