This filmy chakkar is not easy on the eye!

Mrs. Pammi Pyarelal

Time: Mon – Sat at 7 pm on Colors

Producer: Playtime Creations

Director: Ashish Khurana

Cast: Gaurav Gera, Karan Goddwani, Usha Nadkarni, Mazhar Sayed, Dimple Jhangiani, Vrinda Tewari, Sonia Rakkar.

 

The story so far – The story for the past one week has been of two friends who are struggling to make it big in Mumbai. One is Param (Gaurav Gera) who has come from a small town Gorakhpur where he's been staying with his old mother and handicapped sister. With dreams of making it big as an actor he lands in Mumbai to stay with his friend Rahul Pyarelal (Karan Goddwani) who is a salesman. Since they find a PG (Paying Guest) accommodation where only couples are allowed, Rahul convinces Param to dress up as a woman and introduces him as his wife Mrs. Pammi Pyarelal to the Fauzdar family who own the massive bungalow where they get to stay as PGs.

The Fauzdar family is full of comic characters – the head of the family is Mrs. Kamini Fauzdar (Usha Nadkarni) with her three sons Rajveer (Sanjeev Jotangia) married to Amrita (Sonia Rakkar), Randhir (Prasad Barve) married to Mohini (Rinku Ghosh) and the youngest as yet unmarried, Ranjeet (Mazhar Sayed). There is also Gayatri (Vindhya Tiwari) and Minty (Dimple Jhangiani) who are Mrs. Fauzdar's grand-daughters and who look like they will ultimately be the love interest of Rahul and Param respectively. While Kamini is a retired Jail superintendent and thus very strict, her elder son is involved in the stock market and talks on many phones at the same time, the middle son forgets his identity when he doesn't take his medicines on time, and the youngest one is a good for nothing character. Amongst the two grand-daughters, Gayatri speaks in shudh Urdu and Minty is as yet to make an entry.

Rahul comes in to stay with Pammi at the Fauzdar house where everyone welcomes Pammi who has to don the garb of a woman all the time. She also goes out shopping with Mohini where the film artiste co-ordinator Pandeyji sees Pammi and finds a resemblance to Param. Everyone finds Pammi very attractive and Mohini wants to learn swimming from her so Pammi even gets into a bikini and into the swimming pool.

What works – Gaurav Gera as Pammi definitely works. The versatile actor puts in his 100 % and more to look and act as the lady killer that he is supposed to be. With apt make-up and costume and a lithe body to support him, Gaurav pitches in with a performance with all the adas and nakhras. The lowering of the eyes, biting the lips, swaying the hips, playing with the pallu and ishaaron ishaaron mein baat karna, Gaurav manages to make it look all convincing. His not using a shrill put-on female voice into the character too works in his favour as his own nasal voice is an advantage for Gaurav.

Karan Godwani as the friend is an excellent support to the main character and delivers a superb performance and so does Usha Nadkarni with her strict demeanor. Vindhya Tiwari delivers her lengthy Urdu dialogues effortlessly and Rinku Ghosh looks pretty.

What doesn't work – The story is nothing new to talk about (we have seen similar stories in films earlier), and the overall look of the show is garish and filmy, in fact too filmy. The sets, the costumes, the accessories – all are pink, green, blue and there is too much of a color riot on screen! The make-up of all actors is too heavy and the costumes are rich making it all look unreal.

The entry of each and every character is accompanied by a filmy background score which at times is very irritating. All the characters are too well defined - someone is too loud mouth, someone is totally forgetful, someone is too strict, someone talks only Urdu! The dialogues too take inspiration from films and even the background music score depends on films! In one week there were at least more than one dozen films which were referred to – Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge, Tezaan, Dabbang, Singham, Kuch Kuch Hota Hain, No Entry, and more! When one particular thing is used as a reference again and again, it looks stale.

Even if Gaurav looks good as a woman, his boyish frame is not one which will be hidden so there are times when his frame does not look all that convincing and this is more so when we see almost all the male characters in the serial falling for this woman. They like the way Pammi walks and talks. They all flirt with her and find her to be their dream woman, which is a bit of over exaggeration!

While comedies and spoofs work on being a bit outlandish this one goes out of hand as there is an overdose and everything is too loud! In this one week, we also saw toilet humor which was added to the show but the comedy here looked crude.

The character of Ranjeet who true to his name which he shares with the real film screen villain who has done roles of a rapist, womanizer in films has the hangover of the screen baddie and attempts to mis-behave with Pammi too. Why would everyone, including Ranjeet who knows very well that Pammi is a married woman want to flirt and tease her? This is not something that we see in normal life and even though Pammi doesn't encourage this the entire scene looks un-civilised.

Our take – If the makers tone down the filmy inspiration and polished it well to give a sophisticated look to the characters the show might look better. While one agrees that comedy at this level, with such a story line has to be a bit over the top, too much of anything damages the entire scene! The use of filmy music and references all the time is avoidable and so is the hammering of the fact that Pammi is oh-so-attractive!

The promos of the show really looked promising and polished. If the makers make serious attempts to make the show look equally glamorous instead of the current flippant approach it still stands a chance to click!

Seema Khot Mattoo