TV Review: Colors TV serial… Madhubala- Ek Ishq Ek Junoon

                       Drashti (Drishti) Dhami

© Harish Jharia  

TV viewers might be remembering a serial based on the life of a dwarf woman titled as ‘Baba aiso var deejo’. This was aired on Imagine TV channel that has since been closed. Nautanki films were the makers of that serial. The same production house, Nautanki Films managed by Saurabh Tewari and Abhinav Shukla is coming up with a news show on Colors. The title of the new serial kept changing since it reached in its final stage for telecast. It was initially titled as "Shikhar" subsequently its name changed to “Kathputli” and the makers finally titled it as “Madhubala- Ek Ishq Ek Junoon”.

                   Vivian Dsena

I am really convinced with the current title of the show ie “Madhubala- Ek Ishq Ek Junoon” vis-à-vis   the previous couple of titles that were just not impressive and lacked the real boost that was required for attracting attention of the monotonous TV viewers. The makers literally woke up the disgruntled viewers who were fed-up with watching the stereotype prolonged serial shows with the same indoor shots wth repeated slide shows of close-ups of expressionless characters.

                   Rakhi Vijan

The serial “Madhubala- Ek Ishq Ek Junoon” has finally arrived with a bang on a large canvas. When I watched its initial episodes I felt as if I was watching a movie and not a TV show.  The serial had all the qualities of a feature film and the most noticeable was the dynamics with which the story moved ahead.

             Pallavi Subhash Chandran

The serial “Madhubala- Ek Ishq Ek Junoon” is going on well and is sure to get desired TRP and viewership. The main attraction of the serial is that it is about the lives of the Bollywood strugglers aspiring to become film stars. The serial is showing both the aspects of the lives of the people, like that of the celebrities and of the junior artists, working in Bollywood. The common people and TV viewers are quite curious to know more and more about Bollywood, Indian cinema, the actors, technicians and makers. If the makers of “Madhubala- Ek Ishq Ek Junoon” manage the serial carefully it is going to dominate all other TV shows.

Story line:

This is a story of the  junior artists who aspire to become film stars. The serial started with the initial background of a family of a village head Raj Zutshi, who is a cruel person an atrocious husband toward his wives. He had killed his first wife because she delivered of a baby girl. He has also made it clear that he might repeat the same crime with his present pregnant wife, suspected to have a baby girl in her womb.

                     Raj Zutshi

His wife Pallavi Chandran consults her family midwife Sushmita Mukherjee about the child she is expecting and runs away along with her step daughter from her house for saving her life and that of her children. They board a train and eventually disembark on a Mumbai railway platform. They dramatically get shelter in a chaul and Pallavi Chandran started doing junior artists’ jobs on daily basis. She delivers of a baby girl on a film set during a shoot. That girl is named as ‘Madhubala’ by an elderly veteran actor.  

The serial then abruptly takes a time leap of 18 years and the story continues with interesting and exciting incidents portraying the lives of strugglers, film stars, the junior artists and technicians.

Review:

The serial is really worth watching. Nevertheless, it requires being more realistic and the dramatization and exaggeration will have to be reduced to a considerable limit.  The subject and the storyline are quite new for the TV viewers who are really enthusiastic about knowing all about Bollywood and the lives of the people related to film production.  

Nevertheless, the makers of “Madhubala- Ek Ishq Ek Junoon” have made it a bit louder and exaggerated than required. The portrayal of the main lead character RK the superstar is too very loud. He is looking like a villain rather than a popular film star who should be intellectually rich and emotionally sensitive. Similarly, the character played by Raj Zutshi has also been shown too very loud and abnormal. In many shots he looked like a lunatic rather than an illiterate village rustic. I felt bad when I saw an artist with such a huge acting talent, looking like doing ‘over acting’.  

I think there is an inevitable requirement of changing the portrayal of these two characters. The superstar should be shown as a darling of everyone across genders and age groups. At the same time Raj Zutshi should be given freedom to display his acting talent suiting to the character and cut-down the exaggeration.

On the other hand, Bhupinder Singh the foster father of the female lead deserves to appear more frequently on the screen. He should be shown a bit more involved in the family affairs equivalent to the character played by Rakhi Vijan and Pallavi Chandran. I think the TV viewer would like to see him more often on the screen doing some worthwhile contribution to the life of Madhubala.

Cast & Crew:

1. Drashti Dhami: Female Lead character- Madhubala
2. Vivian Dsena: Male lead character- RK  (Rishabh Kumar)
3. Rakhi Vijan: Roma
4. Manish Naggdev: Mukund Dixit
5. Raj Zutshi: Balraj Chaudhary
6. Indresh Malik: Bittuji (PA to RK).
7. Shagufta Ali: Badi Chaudhrain
8. Pallavi Subhash Chandran: Padmini (Madhubala's mother)
9. Bhupinder Singh: Shamsher Mallick (Madhubala’s foster father)
10. Lalit Parimoo: Guruji
11. Sushmita Mukherjee: Dai Maa

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