First and foremost 3 cheers to the creators and makers of Pushpavalli. Good original content on Amazon prime India. Comedienne & actor Sumukhi Suresh has brought to us this twisted dark comedy set in and around the life of “Pushpavalli”.
Plot: Pushpavalli is about a girl from Bhopal who moves to Bangalore to pursue her crush who is oblivious to her intentions.
Cast:
Sumukhi Suresh – Pushpavalli
Manish Anand – Nikhil Rai
Naveen Richard – Pankaj
Shraddha Vasu
Latha Satyamurthy – Amma
Director:
Debbie Rao
Writers:
Sumukhi Suresh
Naveen Richard
Rahul Hota
As I surfed through Amazon prime I came across Pushpavalli. The moment I saw the series, I was glad that is back with a show after a fantastic performance as Lavanya in the widely acclaimed movie ‘Humble Politician Nograj’. It also did remind me about this show called “Mahiway” on Sony by Yash Raj. For the uninitiated, it was a show about a chubby girl wanting to live a life on her own terms with a dream about how her ideal prince should be. It was a light-hearted, fun show, cut above the crowded K show repetitive drama soaps on tv back then.
So now with this thought, I was all set for a show in the similar genre – the feel-good rom-com. Perfect for a Sunday afternoon.
I binged watched the show. 8 episodes 25 mins each. The show grows on you like a vine. It begins with you rooting for the protagonist, loving the chocolate brown skinned, overweight funny girl who is constantly reminded of her colour and looks by her pushy, overbearing mother. It leads you to detest this scheming, compulsive liar, dognapping, stalker of women.
What I liked:-
- The show does the dark comedy well. It is a genre which is not easy to pull off without falling flat. The thing about this genre is your laugh at that second while feeling uneasy at times and wondering did you have to laugh at all.
- It is an uncommon story of a familiar plot called stalking, which is otherwise glamourized in Hindi movies. Here the makers strike the balance without normalizing stalking in love.
- The life of the show is the rest of the cast and characters.
- The two contrasting men, that is, the children’s library owner, Pushpavalli’s school friend and now F-word obsessed angry young man, boss Pankaj to Nikhil the Okra exporter, apple of pushpavalli’s eye, the sun to her life, the arm candy gentleman, played By Manish Anand, bring in their A game adding the right balance to this twisted saga.
- But my absolute favourite has to be Vasu played by Aiyyo Shraddha. Every time she appears as this stingy, annoying, nosey PG owner she gets you laughing out loud and keeps you wanting to see more of her.
- Finally, the thing that caught my attention was how social and women issues were neatly weaved into the story like menstruation, body shaming, marital pressure, flashing, without throwing them into your face but yet delivering the message.
- The climax literally leaves you saying, “What the hell!”.
Surely, Pushpavalli wasn’t what I expected it to be and am glad that was the case. It has its flaws but that’s for another time.
Rating: 3.5/5
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5M_sdbFoYg]
