Saraswatichandra Review: SLB fails to impress in the first episode

Saraswatichandra hit the screens last night amidst lot of expectations and hullaballoo. And why not? After all… it is ”THE” Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ambitious plunge in the world of Indian television. Now, SLB is known for making movies which are grand in scale and canvas. He is someone who would not shy away from holding a paintbrush to add a touch or two to add extra finesse to a piece of Michelangelo or Leonardo Da Vinci.
Saraswatichandra

Saraswatichandra hit the screens last night amidst lot of expectations and hullaballoo. And why not? After all… it is ”THE” Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ambitious plunge in the world of Indian television.

Now, SLB is known for making movies which are grand in scale and canvas. He is someone who would not shy away from holding a paintbrush to add a touch or two to add extra finesse to a piece of Michelangelo or Leonardo Da Vinci.

We are not exaggerating…watch his creations namely Devdas, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam or Saawariya, one will get awe struck with magic spilling on screen.

So did the master manage to bring in identical opulence and creative genius (as he promised in press conferences) in Saraswatichandra? Well…not at all.

The first episode left us disappointed. It strikes an expository note with all pivotal characters being brought in the foray.

Here we would like to share a bit of observation. SLB is a man who has a hunger for success. And success in TV means TRPs. So what does he do? He sticks to the tried and tested formula. There is a lean hero (Gautam Rode) who looks lost and in pain a la Devdas, a father (Chetan Pandit) who is not happy with his son, a sauteli maa (Monica Bedi) who flickers her eyelashes while talking, and of course a beautiful ambitious girl (Jennifer Winget) who is bubbly and brave (similar to Aishwarya Rai from Hum Dil De Chuke).

We also see Kumud’s (Jennifer) family who stays in a large mansion and are very hale, hearty and happy (they all seem to be super rich but none seems to work or do anything professionally).

Anyways, so what did Bhansali bring “new” to television. Nothing…absolutely nothing. Yes, we have tight close up shots and jimmy jibs zooping all around. And the usual Bhansali “din tana nana” raag being played at high volumes at the back ground with actors talking emotively (read: plastic like) to the camera.

Bhansali talks about grandeur, larger than life characters, bringing cinema to TV, but we viewers have already seen his antics in movies, why would we ache our eyes watching the same stuff on TV all over again?

Tall claims…fall flat.

New is what Aamir did with Satyamev, new is what Sphere Origins did with Balika Vadhu, new is what Siddharth Basu did with KBC, new is what Optimystix did with Crime Patrol, new is what Ekta did, doing, and will do with her K serials.

When we talk about performances, Gautam looks lean, mean, Charlie Sheen. But we hope he gets out from his “cardboard expressions mode” and actually acts. Chetan Pandit should stick to talking in Hindi and Monica Bedi should Google the meaning of the word, “confidence”.

Jennifer Winget as Kumud looks like a rip off of Nandini (Aishwarya Rai) from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

All in all, we were left disappointed after watching the first episode of Saraswatichandra. Here’s a suggestion. Mr Bhansali, don’t be worried about TRPs. Do what you do the best. Be creative and do justice to a great story and re-define romance, emotion, magic on small screen. The show can add a new dimension to the entire realm of Indian television.

Tellychakkar.com hopes that in the coming days, Bhansali will manage to rein in proceedings and understand the difference between TV and cinema and make Saraswatichandra watchable.

Before signing off, we would like to state a thought. Why is that every time a Bollywood biggie “descends” to television business, channels go gaga about it. But there are regular TV producers (who are equally talented) who have to fight with pitch &fork to keep their projects afloat and deal with budgetary issues.

We used the word “descend” as that is what the broadcasters are making of it. Be it SLB or Aamir or Amitabh, they all are respected and good at what they do, but there is also something called “equality of treatment”.

Television has grown and will breed in leaps and bounds and someone like SLB can only add to its progress.

Here’s wishing Saraswatichandra all the luck and success!!!

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SiddharthaLaik's picture

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Submitted by SiddharthaLaik on Tue, 02/26/2013 - 18:19

Comments

deneth's picture

for once i agree with tellychakkar. the first episode did not grip me at all. i had high hopes due to the marketing this show received. but it failed to impress me. no expressions from actors at all. i dont know whether i should give more time for the show and then judge. but, in recent times, the only serial i LOVED was IPKKND. i watched the 1st episode and i was blown away and got hooked to it. so considering how much the 1 episode is important, i dont know how far ill stick to this serial.
sun_burn's picture

totally diapponted wid d episode...promos were far bttr den d actual episode...thumbsdown
eman's picture

i think so kumud and saras is good couple
urvashi's picture

wow...the review was bang on!! I din like the main characters who seemed to be over acting!! there was no modesty in kumud..who seemed to way more proud than the humble and innocent Aishwarya!!
pratchi's picture

wish they had iqbal khan i would have watched and would have looked good with jennifer dont like the guy..good review
sana's picture

Very true. Fell completely flat, and that was not expected. No soul AT ALL. Jennifer was synthetic and the hero, less said the better. All these guys think that acting is only about six packs. Definitely not going to waste my time with this serial.
crazy2012's picture

you know, I am also really disappointed a bit after watching SLB - actually the expectation was more from him. Kumud is just another idol of Nandini. gautam is handsome but needs to be more careful with dialogue delivery..
subhashini's picture

well i watched the show but its not up to i thought it will be.any ways gud luck i just hope sp should think about ipkknd2
Rosanna 's picture

SLB claims this show reaching 2000 episodes give me a break he is just cut copy paste from devdas & HDDCS and audience are fools to waste their 30 minutes , Both the actors need to be buckel up & know its a TV show not 70 mm screen & the industry has better talented producers than SLB , if u sustain 2 weeks then ur 3 crores expenses can be gauged on a loud show with too much copied from movies
Meghna's picture

Totally agree to each of your points...star plus has only made regressive shows and the only good show it had they gave it no budget and yanked it off ruthlessly..and here they are pandering to a filmmaker to show romance on tv.. We understand romance it was shown beautifully last year at 8 pm slot..

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