Of romance, mayhem and lots of laughter

IN parts it’s a genuine comedy. Specially when it comes to portraying Raghunath Bhatia, a 50-year-old bachelor who owns an engineering firm and employs four vibrant, young engineers — Sanjay, Vishal, Kuku and Anil.

Dil Vil Pyar Vyar, on Sony Entertainment Television every Thursday is about how these four engineers woo four pretty girls, Madhu, Sonali, Rashmi and Dinky, who are students in a modelling school owned by a former model, Kitty.

The hitch is how to get these girls interested. So the boys adopt an unusually hazardous plan — Sanjay disguises himself as a girl and enrolls in the same modelling school.

Though the plot comes perilously close to the seventies — Rishi Kapoor-Neetu Singh runaway hit Raffuchakkar, the serial is watchable for its romantic mayhem and situational humour.

One fine story

This sure is a week of ‘inspirations’. If Dil Vil Pyar Vyar is an offtake of the seventies’ Raffuchakkar, Soni Razdan has no inclinations to grope for tired old ideas in Bollywood. Because Hollywood has more imaginative and fresh scripts on offer.

Even the title of her new serial on Star Plus, Aur Phir Ek Din is a loose translation of the 1998 George Clooney-Michelle Pfieffer blockbuster, One Fine Day. But, if you forget the Hollywood connection, Aur Phir Ek Din the serial is pacy and slick.

It’s about a young widow (Soni Razdan) and a divorced man (Kiran Kumar) whose respective daughter and son study in the same school. The kids facilitate the meeting of their hasselled single parents. The introduction soon blossoms into a love affair.

"The storyline is not copied. We have just taken the essence of the film," says producer Soni Razdan honestly. "The major difference is that One Fine Day was a two-hour film and this is a 52-episode serial."

Stretching the point, but so what? Forget the similarities and look for the positives. And there are plenty of those in Aur Phir Ek Din.

The ‘other’ woman’s back

Neena Gupta has been going to town over her in Saans. The storyline of Naved Antulay’s Heena hinges on her. And now, Cinevista is portraying the power of the ‘other’ woman over a man’s psyche.

Meet her every Monday on Doordarshan’s Dil Apna Preet Parayee. It’s about a novelist, Satish whose wife Geeta doesn’t appreciate his writings and wants him to go out and get a ‘real’ job.

In frustration Satish rents a room to escape the constant nitpicking of his wife. Here he meets Rati, a university student who has been a fan of his writings. She knows Satish is married and has two daughters, yet she can’t resist his literary lure.

Rati also meets his wife, Geeta and realises he deserved a better home and a more sensitive wife. From here the story takes on a broader canvas with interplay of several other characters.

The surprising find of Dil Apna Preet Parayee is ghazal singer Talat Aziz who plays the lead role of Satish to the hilt. And he is ably supported by Krutika Desai and Himani Shivpuri in a serial which is gripping all the way.

Family time

It is family time at Zee. The pros and cons of a joint family as opposed to a nuclear family.Basera is about Shivani who visualises a home after marriage where she can stay independently with her husband. Her best friend Radhika wants to marry in a family where all members live under one roof.

What happens is exactly the opposite. Both girls meet and discuss their fate — Shivani decides to wean her husband away from his joint family and persuades him to take up a separate apartment. Radhika plans to invite all of her husband’s family to live together.

Will Shivani and Radhika achieve what they want? Will their dreams come true? That forms the story basis of Basera and the means these two girls employ to achieve their ends.

Many situations in the serial would be familiar for most middle class families who are either breaking out into nuclear groups or small families who want to go back to the comforting fold of a joint family. Worth a watch for its topicality.

Spine-chilling series

What evil lurks around the corner? It is the Dark Zone on Discovery. From the curse of King Tutenkhamen to tales of vampires, the series airing airs from August 22 to 26 confronts legends that spring from mankind’s nightmares.

It includes The Curse of Tutenkhamen which attempts to solve the question about mysterious death of explorers who uncovered King Tut’s tomb.

Dark Zone also features In The Grip of Evil which investigates whether Satan or his minions truly took over the body of a 14-year-old boy from Maryland, USA. Then there is Wolfman — The Myth and Science which reveals the kernels of fact that have spawned the ghorrifying tale of the werewolf.

Vampires: Thirst For Truth, is a two-hour special, which delves into the classic psychological attraction of vampires through memorable movie clips, location footage and expert interviews.

Watch this spine — chilling series which is guaranteed to make your hair stand on its ends.

— Mukesh Khosla