#Review:Star Plus' Rishton Ka Chakravyuh boasts of a gripping storyline with impeccable performances

Cast: Narayani Shastri, Mahima Makwana, Praneet Bhatt, Ajay Chaudhary

Produced By: Rolling Pictures and Taurus Media. 

Star Plus is back with yet another interesting show Rishton Ka Chakravyuh. Produced by actor Bhupinder Singh and wife Sanjot Kaur, the show is about a warring mother-daughter duo, Satrupa and Anami played by powerhouse actresses Narayani Shastri and Mahima Makwana respectively. The show launched this week and here's what it looks like.  

Story So Far:

The show starts with a grand view of Lal Mahal where a huge Puja is taking place and at the same time, the daughter-in-law of the house Satrupa (Narayani Shastri), gives birth to two children (probably twins) a son and a daughter, but her maid takes away the daughter and hands over her responsibility to Murari Pathak, a shradh pandit and tells him that the baby girl's fate would have been different had she been born in another household.

Murari reads the girl's palms and names her Anami. He also predicts that God has given Anami fate's blank sheet and also the pen to write her own fate. At the very same time at Lal Mahal, the patriarch of the house announces the arrival of his heir Vatsalya Vikram Singh and the entire household celebrates. Enter- the Singh family's younger son Pujan Singh (Praneet Bhatt) and there's a celebration for the arrival of the new member in the family with great joy.

Soon, a 17 year leap is shown...

And, the story shifts to Varanasi, where Murari Pathak and his family now reside. Murari's wife Madhu aka Pagli Panditayan (a name that her children have given her), is seen waking up her son Laddu and daughter Anami. Anami's brother and Anami successfully bust a dhongi baba, but in the process, Laddu ends up falling in the Ganga and Anami saves him. When Madhu gets to know of that, she scolds Anami and accuses her husband of bringing home someone else's child but stops soon. A heart-broken Anami walks away and takes out her frustration by beating the blankets with a stick. Her mum comes and hugs her and consoles her. After sometime, Anami thinks about how her dreaded birthday will soon arrive and how she despises her birth mother but is glad that Murari and his wife brought her up.

Back in Bihar at Lal Mahal, the family does a puja together for Vatsalya's birthday, after which Dadaji announces Vatsalya as the family heir for the business and Satrupa and Pujan as Vatsalya's care takers, angering Pujan and his family. He also announces that the family would leave for Benaras the very next day to do the heirship puja for Vatsalya. Vatsalya and his mother Satrupa are shown to have a very close and endearing bond. The mother-son duo sing songs and dance and when the sun rises, Vatsalya feeds his mother a chocolate and breaks a fast that she has been keeping for her son for 2 days. As the day proceeds and the family is preparing to leave, Satrupa's husband Baldev's (Ajay Chaudhary) illegitimate son Narottam also expresses his wish to accompany the family to Benaras, but they do not agree. But Vatsalya, who sees the whole scene and stops his brother from going and takes him along to Benaras with the entire family. In the meanwhile, Pujan calls up some goons and arranges for Vatsalya to be killed in Benaras.

In Benaras, its Anami's birthday and she and her brother are seen leaving for a puja. When her mother stops her and wishes her, Anami scolds her mother and leaves. Meanwhile Satrupa and her family reach the ghat and Vatsalya's abhishek starts. Anami and her brother cut through the crowd that has gathered to see Vatsalya, to go for their puja. She comes across Vatsalya donating blankets and other things to the poor and  stops him, saying that with the rich people donating things to wash sins, the locals have taken to begging. Vatsalya, who is left stunned for a minute with Anami's unabashed behavior, tells her that donation is their way of showing their devotion and not show off.

Anami's pandit asks her to immerse a diya in the waters. And as Anami goes, she recalls her abandonment and says that just like her birthmother gave her up, Anami too will give up her real mother on that very day every year and immerses the diya. At the very same spot, Satrupa's maid, who had given away Anami to Murari sees him and gets tensed. But Murari does not see her and walks away with Anami. At the place that the Singh family is staying, Pujan's son rags Narvottam to dace like a girl and gets his friends to misbehave with Narvottam. Pujan steals jewelry and give it to a goon and asks them to make Vatsalya's murder look like an accident and also warns the goons of Vatsalya's personal bodyguard Tej Singh.

The maid is tensed after seeing Murari with Anami and goes to the Singh family's guruji and narrates the whole incident to him. A flashback follows where Satrupa is seen holding her daughter and crying. But with a heavy heart, Satrupa gives away her daughter and asks the maid to place her daughter in safe hands as afterall, she is her daughter. Guruji gives another thread to the maid and asks her to hand it over to Satrupa to tie on Vatsalya's wrist. Vatsalya's pagdi rasam takes place and it is seen that Vatsalya's grandfather (Dadaji) and father Baldev share a cold relation.

At Anami's place, she and her mother are seen arguing. An upset Anami goes to the ghat and sits crying. Vatsalya too comes there and the duo strike a bond. Anami and Vatsalya sit talking about how its their birthday the same day and how their mothers mean the world to them. While they are talking, Pujan's goons very smarty pull Vatsalya into the water and try to strangle and drown them. But Anami rescues Vatsalya and soon Tej Singh gets hold of one of the goons, but they slip from his hands. Vatsalya, who likes Anami ties his suraksha thread to Anami's wrist and asks her to keep it as a as a sign of his friendship. He also goes on to tell Anami that if he had a sister, she would have been just like Anami. 

In the dead of that very night, Tej Singh and Satrupa come in search of the goons who attacked Vatsalya and catch them. When Satrupa and the police question the goons about who gave the order, the goons tell them that they did not see the face of that person. Satrupa orders for the goons to be drowned in the river.

Back at home, Vatsalya argues with his family that he wants to go back to his hostel in Delhi and complete his education. But, Satrupa and his grandfather are in no mood to listen to Vatsalya. When he asks his father to intervene, Baldev tries to talk to Satrupa but Satrupa tells him that she is not prepared to take that risk. When Baldev questions her as to how she would have felt if her freedom was taken away, Satrupa back answers and tells him that she was married at that age. She tells her husband that she has forgotten old things and asks him to not remind her of those days. Both Satrupa and Dadaji finally decide to not let Vatsalya go, which saddens the boy.

Pujan goes to Vatsalya, who is sitting alone in the balcony and subtly instigates him to run away from home. Vatsalya takes his idea seriously, apologises to his parents and runs away from home. In Benaras, it is the day of Laddu's admission in an Engish medium school and both Laddu and his parents fail to pass the test. But Anami requests the Principal, who tells her that Laddu can get admission in the sports quota, if he breaks the school's 100 meter race record.

Satrupa discovers Vatsalya missing, but his plan to run away is foiled, as his bodyguard Tej Singh is actually following him to Delhi. The bodyguard connects Vatsalya to Satrupa, who promises him that she will listen to all of his conditions and that he should just return home. Tej and Vatsalya sit in the car and are spotted by Pujan's henchmen who inform him that Tej and Vatsalya are on their way back to Lal Mahal. Pujan tells him to do whatever it takes but to make sure that the duo does not reach Lal Mahal. Satrupa calls Vatsalya to ask how far he is from home, when their favourite song plays. While the mother-son pair is engaged in their bonding, Vatsalya's car is hit by a truck.

At the same time in Benaras, Anami's thread that Vatsalya gave her, breaks and Anami feels restless. Satrupa hears the crash and runs down to Baldev and cries and faints. The scene shifts to the ladies in the family mourning Vatsalya's death.

A new character is introduced and her name is Sudha (Sangita Ghosh). Sudha is seen getting ready, when her maid comes and tells her about Lal Mahal being in mourning for Vatsalya. Sudha starts to cry and says that once again, a kid has got punished for his ancestor's mistake. She tells her maid that she wants to cry even more, but then stops and says that tears don't suit her. She also adds that her shringaar (red clothes, bindi, the bangles) i.e all things red, are her colour for mourning, while the world prefers to wear white.

At the CBI headquarters, an officer, Adhiraj who meets the chief. He shows him the front page coverage of Vatsalya's death and informs his senior that another murder is being covered up as an accident. When the chief gives Adhiraj the permission to take over this case, Adhiraj informs his chief that he would like to handle the case in his own way, which would mean trouble for the Lal Mahal residents, to which his chief agrees.

At Lal Mahal, everybody is seen mourning Vatsalya in their own way. And in Benaras, Anami too becomes extremely restless and feels like a part of her has gone missing. Vatsalya's stepbrother Nurottam wears the former's jacket and is seen lying on his bed. We then get to see a different streak in him where he is talking to Vatsalya's pictures and telling him about how Vatsalya did not know what it was to be him. Not being able to absorb the blow (Vatsalya's death), Satrupa tries to kill herself, but turns out that her gun does not have any bullets. So she gets to work and loads bullets in her gun.

Meanwhile, Adhiraj comes to Lal Mahal and seeing the watchman dozing off, he enters. It is then revealed that Adhiraj has some secret connection to Lal Mahal as he pulls out a picture of a man and a lady standing in front of the Mahal with their 2 children. Adhiraj promises the place that he will now write its fate.  

What Worked:

An extravagant Lal Mahal set, shooting on the banks of the Ganga and in the streets of Benaras has added a very realistic appeal to the show.

Even though the show starts with the age-old 'unwanted girl child' concept, it quickly picks up pace. The first episode itself, gave us a glimpse into all the key characters of the show and the screenplay has been written so well, that every character has established their characteristics.

Every character that has so far been introduced is tailor-made for his or her role and has powerful dialogues, which only helps enhance the overall impression.

The makers have kept intact, the mystery angle of the plot wherever necessary, which only makes us want more.

What Did Not Work:

While most of the key characters have been introduced with proper detailing, there is confusion pertaining certain people. For example: we all know that Nurottam is Baldev's illegitimate son. But why is he shown to be so effeminate? A little bit clarity would have helped the viewers put two and two together.

Also, Sangita Ghosh's entry was as mysterious as it could get. But with Sangita's character being a strong and mysterious one, we felt her character's introduction could have been even more elaborate and also that there should have been a little more revelation pertaining her character.

Verdict:

The promos of Rishton Ka Chakravyuh raised many eyebrows already. And the show too has put a lot of our guesses into perspective. But there still is ample amount of intrigue surrounding the show, which works for a majority of the audience today.

But having said that, we wish that the makers do not fall prey to the number game or drag the show for years and years or deviate from the original concept.

Ratings: **** (4 stars)