Naamkarann review: Mahesh Bhatt's new show is the change Indian TV needed!
Mahesh Bhatt's Naamkarann is more a dialogue within, than outside. It's more about a silent understanding than external conflict.
The essence of Mahesh Bhatt's Namkarann is captured in the first dialogue mouthed by its 10-year-old protagonist Avni, in the show's powerful opening sequence.
"Who am I?" She partly asks her mother and partly herself.
The little girl has been sitting outside her home, braving the rains, pondering on this quintessential question and bearing the pain of an external wound.
"How did you get injured," asks the mother.
"Because of you," pat comes the reply, and the little girl runs away from the spot and from herself.
That's Naamkarann for you. It's more a dialogue within, than outside. It's more about silent understanding than external conflict. Yet the little girl manages to come up with right questions at the right time, knowing fully the importance of timing and silence.
Created by Mahesh Bhatt, Namakarann revolves around the life of 10-year-old Avni (Arsheen Namdaar) who stays with a single parent--her mother Asha (Barkha Bisht). Her father Ashish Mehta (Viraf Patel) is a renowned film director, but doesn't stay with them. She knows that theirs is not a normal family, but when somebody else (mostly her friends) says that to her, the suppressed emotions come out, often in the form of conflict with her classmates (thus the wound).
And here's the truth (partial) of their not-so-normal family: Asha and Ashish are in relationship for eleven years, but somehow the couple is not able to tie the knot because Ashish fears that his mother (Reema Lagoo) will not accept Asha. Now on the verge of becoming a father for the second time, Ashish decides to break the news to his mother, but ultimately doesn't. Her failing health prompts him to reconsider.
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Asha is having a sleepless night, and Avni knows exactly how to soothe her mother. From counseling her to singing a lullaby, Avni takes on the role of a mother for a night. Sleeping in the arms of Avni, Asha forgets her worries temporarily.
Will they ever be a complete family or will they be hanging forever in uncertainty?
Naamkarann is everything that it had promised to be-intense, interesting, emotional and powerful. You cannot ignore the autobiographical elements from Bhatt's life. In the upcoming episodes, it will be revealed that Asha is a Muslim and Ashish is a Hindu and that he has another wife (to be played by Sayantani Ghosh) and in the eyes of society, Avni is an illegitimate child. Avni's list of questions will keep increasing and so will the show's intensity.
After a long time, Indian TV has seen something like Naamkarann-a show which is original in its concept, comes from the roots of India, asks the right questions regarding a woman's identity and presents a family drama of a different kind (it is not a typical family). It takes us back to the pre-daily era in Indian television when serials were not stretched like rubber band and the story moved in a definite direction. The show despite being a daily and non-finite series seems to know where it is heading. The pace is slightly sluggish, but you still manage to stay glued to the soap. We also rarely see original songs in TV soaps these days, and being a musical is another strength of Naamkarann.
Performances in the show are subtle yet powerful. Arsheen Namdaar, Viraf Patel, Barkha Bisht Sengupta, Reema Lagoo do complete justice to their characters.
Naamkarann is the change Indian TV needed from saas-bahus, naagins and daayans. Thanks, Mahesh Bhatt for giving us this show.
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