At a time when high drama and supernatural seems to rule the TV roost, Sony’s new light-hearted show, Isharon Isharon Mein, (Qizzago) comes as a whiff of fresh air.
This cute romance between the deaf and mute couple, Yogi (Mudit Nayar) and Gunjan (Simran Pareenja), with a third wheel, should be an interesting watch.
The setting is the congested bylanes of Old Delhi, where Yogi lives and works with his family. How come all TV shows have joint families? I never seem to come across peaceful co-habitation in real life.
The first episode where Yogi’s father Prakash (Kiran Karmarkar) brings the whole house down for a razor was a tad unnecessary. Also, being a soccer player, should Yogi not understand the importance of team play. Search for self-glory often proves disastrous. The creative wanted to portray him as the next Pele with the iconic reverse flick kick.
Having said that, the scene where the father barges into the playing field and takes a direct hit to his chest was hilarious. Also, the bro-sis (Yogi and Khushi) bonding brought a smile to our face. The latter speaks for him.
One different template is that normally most shows have the girl’s mother going crazy over worry that her daughter is yet unmarried. Here Yogi’s mother Kusum (Swati Shah) keeps showing his photo to any stranger single gal.
But she is always heartbroken when the girls refuse the offer due to his disability. It does make you think that doesn’t everybody have a right to be happy.
The lovely family scene playing antakshri is a picture perfect Rajshri moment.
Although Yogi’s granddad Ramlal Srivastava (Sudhir Pandey) berates his son in front of all, he also praises him behind his back. The back story about why Prakash failed in his career was full of pathos.
The run length of the first few episodes is well above the standard 20 odd minutes, but now things are back to normal. This phenomenon is always there to add upfront value to the show.
The romance between the senior generations (Ramlal – Sulbha Arya aka Geeta Devi, Prakash – Suman) was really cute.
Cut to the female lead, Gunjan. We have a cute deaf mute girl whose rich father Shiv Kumar (Sooraj Thapar) is ready to pay any amount of dowry to get her settled down, but alas.
Yogi is totally smitten by Gunjan and keeps following her on his bicycle. But he always ends up crashing into the other lead, Dr Pari (Debattama Sah). His father also keeps catching him in the act. Interestingly, for the first time, a female lead character (Pari) is being shown drinking and partying. Hope a time comes when a good girl can also partner hop without being called names. She effectively pulls the wool over her landlord’s eyes.
As fate is to have it, Prakash and Shiv Kumar turn out to be childhood chums, so shall the twain meet?
The scene where Yogi goes to the desi salon to spruce up before meeting Gunjan and her folks was fun. Also, the dialogues with his friends about how to break the ice was such a guy moment.
It would be interesting to see the romance between Yogi and Gunjan. We are sure references will be taken from Khamoshi (Nana Patekar and Seema Biswas).
But a long-running TV series is different from a two-hour film. Having leads with no dialogues will be a real creative challenge for the producer (Zama Habib), as you can’t keep playing around with sign language or others repeating their lines as it takes away from the moment.
Also the love triangle (Yogi, Gunjan and Pari) will be interesting as to how the latter falls in love with someone who can’t speak or hear. No prizes for guessing that Pari will try to treat Yogi, but will fall head over heels in love with him.
Mudit is doing a good job as Yogi, emoting very well with his face and hands. Hope down the road, they show some scenes where he blames fate for his misfortunes, as that would make him appear more human.
So far, Simran has done nothing more than smile without reason. Kunal ji acts well as the very strict but loving father. Kusum always pacifies him by appealing to his vanity (self-perceived similarity to Shah Rukh Khan).
We are sure the creative will give Rishina Kandhari’s bhabhi character some meaty edge as the story unfolds over time. She is looking very pretty in different cut sari blouses.
As it always happens, other family members are just used to fill up the canvas.
The low over-all numbers of most Sony fiction shows will be a challenge to the makers. In a way, this will also prove to be a blessing in disguise for the makers, as the channel mandarins will not resort to quick changes, thereby letting the story follow its natural course.
3.5/5 is our rating for Isharon Isharon Mein