Ishqbaaz has been struggling to find a footing ever since the leap. We now have the grand entry of a new female lead in the renewed quest for viewership.
The new female lead entry bit aired on Friday. The bit was mostly shot with a body double. It looks like they wanted to portray a sweet, simple, pretty, quirky but good hearted girl. The camera work was very good. For a brief time it did look like Lalit and crew got back their mojo. The bit had everything associated with the Yash Chopra brand of romance -dancing in the rain, dupatta, flying hair. Kicking the flip flop (which looked very much like Annika's Chandni/Chameli), she is wearing and catch it with expert precision along with eating noodles with dal were added to make her look quirky. Effectively they are back to the most cliched of female TV leads.
Episode 719 started with a priest cum astrologer looking up a horoscope. He portents that Shivaansh will indeed find his ideal soulmate. The priest also goes on about a difficult journey but that it will all be for the good. The scene harked back to a scene in the original show where another (or perhaps the same, who knows things in Ishqbaaz's world can go topsy turvy) priest made a similar prediction after looking at Shivaay's horoscope. We now know that Shivaay and Annika did not really have a happy ending, so why this hogwash of an astrologer. It could only be the laziest way to set a tone for what the audience should be expecting. With his hogwash, the priest ensures that he utters the name of the character the new female lead is playing several times. "Mannat this "Mannat that goes on for a bit, PN (Par Nani) picks up from there and continues her "Mannat refrain for a a boringly long time.
Mannat finally makes her appearance. She is shown hanging a colourful cloth on a clothesline in full make up, great hair, fine clothes, jewelry and a super smile to boot, all in slow motion. Camera work was good. She is pretty enough to pique Lalith and crew's interest. She play with bubbles while doing dishes. Is it an effort to convince viewers that Mannat is bubbly/cheerful? Mannat is cast in the standard 4Lion's template with the following traits
She is supposed to be quirky and have a solutions for everything much like Zoya, Khushi, Annika, Gauri etc. For instance, Mannat cannot roll out a perfectly circular roti, so she uses the circular plate like a cookie cut to bring the adamant roti to a desired shape. And she sweeps pieces of broken dinnerware under a rug. Seriously? That is more being stupid than problem solving
Furthermore, Mannat is also an orphan like Annika, Khushi, Zoya, ACP Aditi (Yes though I watched only a few episodes post leap, I cannot unsee her). Mannat is at the mercy of cruel relatives. Her cousin's wife is supposed to be heartless enough to have a sick child for domestic help. It was hard to believe that the writers had to rely on the basest of cliches like child labour to portray cruel relatives. Integrity of time and continuity might not have been Ishqbaaz's strength but child labor is completely unbelievable.
Mannat for obvious reasons has a heart of gold, like Geet, Khushi, Annika, Gauri, Bhavya, ACP Adhiti etc. When the cruel woman of a cousin's wife decides to throw the child-domestic help out of the house because the child broke a plate, Mannat with her heart of gold threatens to leave with the child, which she eventually does and goes to her uncle's house. At her uncle's house the uncle's wife is even more cruel and schemy too. Mannat assures to pay for her board as well as that of the child. Subsequently she is shown taking care of the child who falls sick, of all things by hitting Shivaansh with a stone using a slingshot. It was incredulous even by the standards of a typical block headed Indian tv shows.
Mannat like her predecessors, is not well educated and looks like she works as a housekeeper. After umpteen Wedding Planners (Khushi/ Annika), nondescript trainer (Khushi), finally 4Lions found that their heroine could also be a housekeeper. Does it come as a surprise that a production house run by a women, written by women, a show run by woman, never actually had a female character who was also a consummate professional? The only semblance to professionals were ACP Bhavya and ACP Aditi who were both humiliated and suspended, Bhavya eventually was made to quit though she clearly loved her job. Why is that they assume viewers to be dumb enough to prefer only heroines who are not well educated and or professionals?
Like her predecessors, she has a tragic past, where her father abandoned her right after her birth. Her cruel relatives are supposedly taunting her with his Usain Bolt act. Nope that did not work at all. Except for the dramatic setup, it was business as usual for the "Bhagoda father's taunt.
Like Khushi who used to wear her mother's Payal, Mannat has her mother's quilt. Really a quit? And Mannat has a silly self important quote on the quilt as well.
Mannat is supposed to be quirky like Zoya and keeps mouthing supposedly funny shayari, which were neither funny nor does it sound like shayari. Zoya's silly couplets were legendary. One of her first ones were memorable and funny
"Meter se Lamba Kilometer, Kilometer se lamba meel,
Please dont break it aapi you agreed on a deal
Compared the above to Mannat
"Tu mere dil mein aise samayi hai
Jaise gulaab ki baag mein bakri chali ayi hai"
Viewers are supposed to laugh at these lines ? Ms.Surbi Jyothi had better comic timing than Ms.Niti Taylor that somehow made those lines sound funnier than Ms.Tylor's rather flat delivery. Mannat is also quoting herself all the time with an air of silly self importance and there is an annoying wah wah wah' in the background accompanying her stupid self importance. If it was intended as a comic relief, it woefully fell short.
Overall Mannat as a character brings nothing new to the show, she and her the characters who are playing her relatives are just adding more confusion to the already chaotic scene with cast members being added, subtracted day in, day out. Her loud mouthed relations and their taunts were downright boring. Agreed Mannat has a hard life but that cruel relative abusing a child is unacceptable, not to mention boring. It looks like Mannat was not born organically in the writer's heart but in an excel template with a checklist of must haves traits that made their previous characters popular. However the writer seems to forget that the memorable of 4Lion's characters were very organic and had the time to bring out traits in the characters over time endearing themselves not only because of the script but also because those actors interpreted the characters and elevated the characters beyond the calling of the script. It is too early to say if Ms.Taylor can elevate Mannat beyond the boring, cliched script. But the first two episodes are not promising. Ms.Taylor has better screen presence and acting abilities than Ms.Manjiri Pupla. But does that mean viewers will accept Mannat as the Shivaansh's romantic interest in the context of grandmother's constant Takkar ki ishqbaazi refrain with respect to Adhiti all these days? We will have to wait and watch.
Otherwise, since my last review, the show has definitely improved. The current supporting cast including the cousins and siblings of Shivaansh are marginally better than the set the leap started with. They are still super boring, there was no wit, no memorable dialogues. They end up picking up random phrases like "Pattar Ke Sanam and try to make it sound cool. Someone should bell the cat and tell the writer that "Pattar Ke Sanam is neither funny nor cool. Viewers would not know if the writer was aiming for comedy for none of the cast seem to have comic timing. Does PN (Par Nani) saying something like "Biwi Doondne le umar mein yeh kaamwali doond ta phir ta hai count ofr comic relief?It was so not funny.
Currently there is also a mystery angle where a replacement housekeeper is buried alive on Oberoi Mansion grounds. The scene was less mystery more farcical. The lady falls into a pit which looks like 3-4 feet deep, she is comfortably lying there while a man covers her with earth using a tiny shovel. Only makers who assume that their viewers are idiots would dare to show something like that on screen. Also the location looked eerily similar to the pit where the ACP previously fell during one of her look locks with Shivaansh. So the spot is romantic for the lead/ex-lead actors while being a death trap to a replacement housekeeper. Cost cutting or any other explanation cannot justify such lack of details, interest or enthusiasm towards one's work.
Then there is a crossdresser in bridal lehenga and a mask. Did the makers intend to make him look menacing? He too ends up looking farcical. A whole bunch of antagonists seem to be after Shivaansh. Apart from the cross dresser, there was the guy who spiked PN's chai, then we have Mannat's aunt. Essentially Ishqbaaz is now reduced to a medieval alchemist's laboratory. No one seems to know where there are headed or what would work. So they are trying this, that, everything in their playbook.
Shivaansh seems to have worked his spondylitis. His neck seems to work fine in these two episodes. He still looks sickly, after all he has a terminal condition. In one of the scenes Shivaansh blushes briefly reminding "Chui mui lajvanti SSO. Still it is unbelievable that Shivaansh and Shivaay were/are played by the same actor. Such a blase act playing the former and such perfection playing the later. Khanna still alternates between breaking down and assuring Shivaansh that he will be fine. "Kal Ho Na Ho annoyingly plays periodically to remind that Shivaansh is "kuch din ke mehmaan. To add to the mix is the new background track for Shivaansh-Mannat scenes - "Tere Naam, perhaps the most forgettable song ever in the most forgettable of Bhai's extensive filmography. Hopefully the idea to play Tere Naam' is to connect the girl's name to PN's constant "Mannat refrain and that makers will be mercifully abstain from playing the song before the song kills any Ishqbaazi still left over.
As far as the narrative goes, there still is nothing much going. It still continues to be the medieval alchemist laboratory. Just last week, ACP adhiti went though a gamut of events from look locks, trip and falls, humiliation, etc and now we do not see her except in PN's passing reference.So much for the police commissioner's tears and maternal bond with Shivaansh, she is not to be seen either.
After being on air for nearly a month, none of the characters stand out as well etched. The plot is not good enough to hold viewer's interest either. It continues to be boring despite the marginal improvement in the performance of the supporting cast. The leads might be doing a decent job on their own, Mr.Mehta though is very far from being in his elements. If sparks fly when the leads get closer is yet to be seen. One can't help wondering what a show without a well thought out storyline, or well etched characters is doing on a prime time slot. Ishqbaaz is now reduced to being the crazy alchemist's cauldron simmering with a cookie cutter/ template female lead, sickly male lead, a bunch of boring, over the top supporting cast, a flying cop who managed to fly out of the show, lazy blase writing. It is a tall order to hope that the show can achieve a faction of the popularity the original show achieved.
Indian Idol 15
