Sister act

What’s it about? Four sisters with four distinct personalities—that’s the USP of Star Plus’ latest show,Behenein. The Shastri family—father Sevantilal,mother Revti and daughters Purva,Smriti,Akashi and Anokhi—live in a sprawling house in Nadiad,Gujarat. All is happy and well. In the opening episode,we find out that Purva,the oldest,is getting ready to marry her childhood sweetheart,Amar. The preparations for the sangeet,prior to the wedding,are in full swing. The nervous and delicate Smriti is already married to her collge love,Mihir,and is seven months pregnant. The beautiful and vain Akashi and the fun loving Anokhi make up the lovely and lively quartet.

Of course,there has to be a serpent in every garden of Eden and here,the girls have more than their share. First,there’s Neema Fui,Sevantilal’s older sister,who inspires awe and fear in the hearts of everyone in the family. She’s a dour,authoritative and vindictive lady,whose one mission in life seems to be to cast a pall of gloom wherever she goes. The other serpents—not surprisingly—are Smriti’s mother-in-law and sister-in-law,who think that she’s brought ruin on their family with her constant need for medical attention.

Who’s in it? Darshan Zariwala and Shruti Ulfat play the doting parents,who’re a little stressed out about the second wedding in their family. The daughters are played—from the oldest to the youngest—by Alisha Khan,Shiju Kataria,Adaaa Khan and Ojaswi Oberoi. In a surprising,but rather interesting move,Ketki Dave has been cast as the scheming and brooding Neema Fui. The role requires her to stay poker-faced through most of the show. Like all small screen negative characters before her,Dave relies on wardrobe and makeup to convince the viewers of her wickedness.

What’s hot? There’s definitely pace in the narration—things happen quickly and not too much time is wasted in unnecessary pans and zooms. The only exceptions are the establishing scenes for each of the four sisters.

What’s not? As it’s only been a week since Behenein went on air,one could say that it’s a little too early to say what will happen on the show. However,given the general predictability of the events so far—as soon as we’re shown a shot of a switchboard fusing,we know the house is going to catch fire; just as surely as we know that the parents will die soon—the viewer expects it as soon as he/she sees the sentimental scene where the mother and father tell their beloved daughters that no matter what happens,the sisters should always be there for each other.

Also,why do all negative characters—specially when female—have to have unnaturally uniform streaks of grey in their hair? And why can’t there be a single major female character who is attractive,wears glasses and is not bookish? Why do TV producers feel compelled to portray attractive young females as having perfect eyesight,teeth,hair and earlobes?

Should you be watching it? We would only recommend this show to those who’re still not tired of the same,negative family dramas where bad things keep happening to good people.