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First Episode Review: ‘Naamkarann’ on Star Plus

'Naamkarann' on Star Plus
‘Naamkarann’ on Star Plus

BizAsia brings readers an insight into Star Plus’ new daily ‘Naamkarann’, which is filmmaker, Mahesh Bhatt’s foray into television. The show launched on Monday (12th September) night and BizAsia’s reporter, Nish Misra did a review of what the show could have in-store for viewers.

Mahesh Bhatt’s latest offering to television, ‘Naamkarann’ is a breath of fresh air. The first episode, which ran for 45-minutes commercial-free, is a clear attempt to entice the audience from the word go.

Relatable, you have Barkha Bisht Sengupta (Ashudi) and Viraf Patel (Ashish Mehta) playing the lead protagonists. The characters are deliberately likeable, for example Ashish, as a casting director, finds himself on the receiving end of an aspiring actress willing to compromise herself to get ahead. Rather than taking advantage of the situation, he calls for the agent who sent her and beats him in front of the starlet, sending out a clear message. Whether it’s due to their respective long standing acting careers or a credit simply to their acting abilities, Sengupta and Patel’s chemistry shines through the television screen when they’re in the frame together.

However, it is the young child actor as��Avni who steals the show. Playing the only child of the couple, she completes the family. Successfully depicting a range of emotions from the very first scene with a powerful performance, she really is a director’s actor. The plot rests on her shoulders as Bhatt attempts to bridge a gap between the fiction of his story to the reality in it’s telling; as an audience he wants us to believe in what we witness, a raw tension smothered with innocence. The unnamed actor is a natural, the gem which has been discovered by the Bhatt camp this time. Yesteryear film actress, and popularly known for her roles as a doting mother to the main characters in Bollywood films, Reema Lagoo finalises��the ensemble with her return to television with this show.

From the very first promo, there are aspects of ‘Naamkarann’ which bear resemblance and appear inspired by Bhatt’s national award winning ‘Zakhm’ (1999). The first tell-tale signs also appear in the very first episode, especially with the eerily reminiscent framed photograph of the male lead on the wall. Nonetheless, given the other insights into the show and in true Bhatt fashion, the focus will dwell deeper into complications of a particular societal norm and the effect on those who do not conform to it; audiences can expect the story to veer in a different direction in the forthcoming episodes.

By Nish Misra