Review of Pyaar ka dard hai.. - Screenindia

Star Plus, Mondays to Fridays, 10 pm

Host: Paintal, Mukesh Khanna, Manasi Salve, Nitesh Pande, Nakuul Mehta

Rating : **

Pyaar Ka Dard Hai Meetha Meetha Pyaara Pyaara - by the time you say the title of this Kavita Barjatya-Star Plus show, chances are you will be out of breath! Jokes apart, it's the usual story about a boy and a girl, their love and marriage. The story is old as the hills of Himachal Pradesh, where the show is partly set. But it's the treatment that deserves note. Maybe the director (Kaushik Ghatak, the Barjatyas' trusted man and Ekta Kapoor's former blue-eyed boy who's been in the industry enough to treat the same dal chawal with a unique tadka of his own) knew the material he had was not exactly life-changing but had to still make it palatable for the viewers who by now are dying a slow death watching those saccharine sweet love sagas on primetime television today.

Aditya is heir to a business empire. He lives in a house big enough to host a basketball match. He lives with his globe-trotting, chiffon-sari-wearing single mother and his nana (maternal grandfather). Aditya clearly is the child born with a silver spoon, though he misses a father figure in his life. The father, in this case, a stand-up comedian who participates in TV comedy shows, is estranged from his wife. But he does manage to have a say in his son's life and so accompanies the mother and son to Himachal to meet a propective bride for his son. The girl, named Pankhurin belongs to a joint family. There is a dada (good old Paintal), chacha-chachi, a cousin sister, a name-dropping, big shot maternal uncle and her meek-as-lamb parents.

Pankhuri and Aditya meet and sparks fly, of a different kind. While she wants to discuss poetry and painting he talks about settlement after divorce and alimony! Clearly, the girl is baffled. Her family is shocked. Meanwhile, Aditya is not very keen on marriage because he has seen his parents' marriage fall apart but his father convinces him.

The girl is gradually falling in love with Aditya and has managed to convince her family about his 'pure heart'. The premise as we said earlier offers nothing new. Boy meets girl and each has their own ideas on love and marriage because of the families they come from, is hardly a novel concept. But Ghatak makes a few scenes inspiring enough. For instance, the sequence of Aditya looking at his parents' photographs each conveying the story of their separation and the animosity and bitterness they feel for each other is beautifully done. Ditto the idea of the father's profession. The way he uses wit and satire to entertain his audiences yet his failure to impress his snooty wife who calls him a 'joker' is touching.

For starters, we could do away with the grating background score and the absolutely OTT theatrics of Aditya's nana played by Mukesh Khanna. The way Khanna moves his hands around and gets all animated over nothing calls for some serious self-control. The lead pair is good; the boy (Nakuul Mehta) more confident and the girl (Disha Parmar) getting there. Paintal as her dada, Manasi Salve, as Aditya's bitter mother and Nitesh Pande, as the frustrated father are spot on.

The Barjatya shows usually find favour among women and possibly senior citizens as they talk about values, love, togetherness and relationships. Pyaar Ka Dard... has all of that, what it needs more is to continue treating the story differently, imaginatively and not letting it fall into a predictable, boring, all-is-well trap.

Verdict: Watch it if you must