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Shaurya Aur Suhani
Star Plus
Sat-Sun 8 PM
**
All fantasy, but no fun!
Once up on a time…
An evil king, his sinister son, his wily wizard, his sinful Senapati… and amongst all of these – his doe-eyed doll of a daughter, Suhani… and then, at the other end, a hunk on the horse… his coterie of chums… and so on.
Enough meat for a fantasy, you would say? Well – almost.
‘Almost’ because though the façade has promise yet the spirit is largely amiss. Look, when you set out to make a fantasy, you cannot afford to miss out on its core element – Fun.
All those galloping horses, shimmering swords and all that abracadabra, the princes ‘n’ the pauper getting hit together with cupid’s arrows etc., each of these elements has to combine into a rollercoaster ride onto fun. There can be no gainsaying the fact that fantasy without fun is like a jewellery-box without the jewel.
And that’s where Shaurya Aur Suhani goes wrong.
It doesn’t enjoy itself. It goes through the motions (at times with some panache, too), but it stops short of creating the delicious delights of a true-blue fantasy. That’s why what comes our way through ‘Shaurya…’ is mostly tepid, if not exactly tedious.
Shaurya is a commoner (as of now at least – his regal antecedents would come later) and Suhani is a princess with that fiendish father and that brutish brother. The pa/bro combine is ruling the country with an iron-fist. There is also a wizard, Bashundi, who crystal-gazes the future for them, giving tips on how to continue their reign of terror. He also gives them warnings as to who will come as their antagonist.
And this antagonist is none other than our commoner hero, Shaurya whom circumstances have already conspired to be in the palace along with his chums, pretending to be a prince. Here, Suhani meets him, though in a maid’s garb and many a twist later, Shaurya and the boys find themselves at the gallows, being readied for a public hanging.
All of this should make your fancy fly, but it doesn’t quite happen that way. The entire drill is largely lacking in Rasa and leaves much to be desired.
Technically, though, it shows promise. The sets are pleasing on the eye as well as regal without being tacky. The camera-work sucks in the ambience well and the action sequences are well cut.
Among the cast, Saurabh Panday and Sriti Jha get reunited as the leads after Synergy’s Jiya Jale (9X).
Wearing outfits that he seems to be bursting out of, Saurabh doesn’t have the zing and dash in him to carry himself off as a fantasy hero. He tries though by glowering at the bad guys and glinting at the princess with goo-goo eyes – but, in the final analysis, remains strictly functional.
Sriti is easy on the eyes, but that’s about all you can say for her as Suhani. She will have to do a lot more to spark off that shine & sizzle, which is the hallmark of a fantasy princess.
From the pack of villains, Manoj Wadhwa (King Takshak) is all the time stuck and glued to his throne (it looks like the man even takes his bath on it) and mostly seems to have an attack of tetanus – he is so stiff in his body language.
Vineet Kumar as Suhani’s borther prince Simha does have the brawns and the attitude for the role, but needs more variety in his expressions. Till now, he has come across as more of a one note actor as far as emoting is concerned.
The saving grace here is the old horse Liliput, who does his evil wizard act with such vim & vigour and an infectious abandon that it grips your attention instantly. He also does a rollicking take-off on the villain of yesteryears, Jeevan (particularly his staccato laughter). Indeed, Liliput knows what he is doing and what being in a fantasy is all about.
The rest are mostly uneven, now passing the muster and now cutting a sorry figure.
Still, all is not lost yet. Those behind the show do not seem to be totally out of depth. It’s only that they have struck some of the basic keys wrong in doing what they have sought out to do.
As luck would have it, it’s a serial and they can even now darn the initial damage, just by letting their fancies run wild and exploding a fantasy world that would leave a child enchanted and an adult enthralled.
Buckle down to it, guys – you owe it to us!
-VB
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