Serial review: 'Madhubala...Ek Ishq, Ek Junoon '
All in all, there’s enough scope for many filmi twists and turns, but unless they are well-tapped, capturing the 70mm dream on the small screen may remain a dream for the show.
Show: Madhubala...Ek Ishq, Ek Junoon Channel: Colors Time: Monday to Friday, 8.30 pmRating: **1/2
This much-hyped show that apparently traces a simple girl’s unexepected journey to stardom started with a bang alright. The tale seemed gripping enough… Padmini (Pallavi Purohit), the second wife of a tyrannical thakur Balraj Choudhary (Raj Zutshi) is pregnant with his child. But when he threatens to kill both Padmini and the newborn if the baby happens to be a girl, she escapes to Mumbai with his older daughter Trishna.
On arriving in Mumbai, Padmini delivers a baby girl on the sets of a film and it is in this film industry that she finds home and a support in friends — Malick and Roma (Rakhi Vij). The two daughters grow up surrounded by junior artists and archlights. But while Trishna (Aarti Puri) grows up to be a junior artist, even as she aspires to be a heroine someday and can't stop dreaming of starring opposite superstar RK (Vivian Dsena), joining the industry is not on younger sis Madhubala’s (Drashti Dhami) radar at all.
Supporting her sister’s ambition, she herself works in a parlour, and is the doting dutiful daughter. Though Padmini’s left her past behind, memories keep haunting her as she keeps having flashbacks of her husband and his cruel Ammaji (Shagufta Ali).
Despite the grand treatment and high production value, the show itself has failed to impress beyond the first few episodes and the show often slips into the predictable been there seen that sequences.
Rakhi livens up the screen and her track with Aarti is one of the few interesting ones and the maturity of Malick’s character is well-depicted too, but it is the lead actor Drashti who fails to impress much. Blame it on her staid dialogues or not too inspiring sequences, but her character graph so far offers nothing new, and limits her scope to go beyond the brief.
Considering the show is all about her rise in the industry, she seems miles away to even have reached the runway before the take off. All in all, there’s enough scope for many filmi twists and turns, but unless they are well-tapped, capturing the 70mm dream on the small screen may remain a dream for the show.