Screenindia - Review of Madhubala

Colors, Friday, 8.30 pm

Cast: Raj Zutshi, Rakhi Vijan, Dhrasti Dhami, Vivian Dsena

Rating : JJn

First things first: Colors' ambitiously titled Madhubala - Ek Ishq Ek Junoon has got nothing to do with the legendary, enigmatic beautiful actress who the nation knows as Madhubala! Madhubala, the TV version, is at best a tribute to the seventies Bollywood. Everything here is exaggerated, melodramatic and even embarrassingly funny at times.

Honestly, we expected a lot more from this misleading-titled show. But then one look at it and we are glad, they didn't attempt to touch the legendary actress, because they are just not equipped to do it. So who's this Madhubala? She is a young girl born into a rich family. Balraj Choudhury, the father is an arrogant, weird man and a big fan of Madhubala (the actress), holding on to the last vestiges of his dwindling royalty. His first wife has died in mysterious circumstances after giving birth to a daughter. His second wife, Padmini, is expecting and the family guruji has predicted that a girl child would only spell doom for her father. In comes, a dai ma (Sushmita Mukherji in a brilliant cameo) to find out the gender of the child. She quietly helps Padmini to run away from the house as it's a girl she's carrying…He packs off his goons to bring his wife back (and believe it or not, the sturdy extras fail every time). A heavily pregnant Padmini arrives in Mumbai, and ends on a film set and after much melodrama delivers a girl!

Balraj tracks her down and decides to kill her and the daughters…But they survive even while he believes them all to be dead and returns to his hometown, Motihari, relieved.

What could have been an interestingly-told story turns out to be a somewhat tacky production replete with Bollywood clichs like the loud but good-natured junior artiste, Roma who befriends Padmini, and takes charge of her life; or her body builder brother who lends his name to the child (!!) after some heavy duty, emotional dialogue baazi or the very filmi Ganesh festival sequence when Padmini stops the goons in their tracks (with the Agneepath number playing in the background!) or last but not the least, the over-the-top portrayal of the tyrannical father, Thakur Baldev Singh. Also, what's with the dramatic sound effects of the cameras and lights going on and off every time baby Madhubala does something. Agreed, it's set in the film industry but the point need not be hammered.

For the performances– leading the pack is Raj Zutshi, going totally ballistic with his bad father act. We can understand his enthusiasm as he returns to TV after over a decade. Rakhi Vijan continues with the 'hateli' act she started off years ago as Sweety in Hum Paanch, the only difference being, then she was cutely bearable, now she has to be endured.

Coming to the lead pair, at the time of writing, Dhrashti Dhami had just made an appearance as the older Madhubala and she does fit the part of the lost-babe-in-the-woods but having had a sneak preview of Vivian Dsena as superstar RK, we felt he is terribly miscast …someone more mature and experienced could have brought a lot more to the table. But it's early days yet, and we just might be proved wrong.

Verdict: If the 70s films is what you have loved watching, then this ishq and junoon enterprise could just be tailor-made for you, for the rest, take a deep breath and exhale!