Seven years after it's first season came out, I didn't really know what to expect from the second season of Pitchers. The excitement generated by the first season had faded a long time back, a new creative team was handling this season and on top of everything, Jitendra Kumar was not going to be a part of the new season; as a consequence of all these reasons, I was more worried than happy for the return of Pitchers, but after having watched the new season, all my fears have been put to rest as the writers and directors have done a truly commendable job of taking forward the story. Of course there are some shortcomings, but the positives outweigh the negatives.
If this season had disappointed us, then writers Prashant Kumar, Shubham Sharma and Talha Siddiqui would have been the fall guys, so keeping that in mind, all three of them deserve our appreciation because they managed to come up with five strong episodes. The writers have managed to expand the storyline in the most organic way possible and have crafted a screenplay that comes across as much more organized, realistic and polished. The writers have sprinkled a few nostalgic moments randomly to keep the essence of the previous season alive, but I am really glad that some extremely stupid and over the top scenes were avoided in this season, for example, Jitendra Kumar's scenes with his father were a bit difficult to believe in the first season; why would a married man sleep with his father and also get scared of moving out of the house without permission? The writers may not have talked about the kind of work 'Pragati. AI' does but have added a good dose of comedy and emotions in the screenplay, which is paced very well and remains engaging throughout the season.
Abhay Mahajan and Arunabh Kumar were the heroes of this season, not only as actors but also as characters. In the first season, Abhay Mahajan's role was restricted to providing comic relief in every episode, but in this season the actor inside him flourishes beautifully. Abhay's nuanced portrayal of Saurabh Mandal gives a hint of the kind of brilliance this actor possesses. The return of Pitchers also marks the return of Arunabh Kumar into the field of acting and it was wonderful to see him play Yogi once again. This time Yogi was much more restrained and understated compared to last time but was fascinating to watch nevertheless. Even though Arunabh pretty much plays himself in this show, it's always amazing to see him deliver his dialogues, because he does it in a very effortless and natural way. Naveen Kasturia as Naveen Bansal was once again extremely believable, although I did not like his character that much. This team is the creation of Naveen but somehow he himself doesn't come across as a team player. By keeping things to himself, taking key decisions on his own, ignoring the co-founders of his company and pointing fingers at everyone when things go wrong, he has turned himself into pretty much the villain of this show and it does seem like things are only going to get worse in the next season. Sometimes I wonder what exactly Naveen's role in this company is; Yogi comes across as a much better motivator, Jitendra Maheshwari was the technical head and Saurabh Mandal works tirelessly as a manager and always comes across as the most sensible person in the room, but what does Naveen do ? What doesn't help matters is that we don't know what exactly their company does. It would really help if we knew what Naveen's vision is.
The supporting actors and actresses have done a praiseworthy job as well in this season. Shreya Singh was extremely warm and endearing as Hina Rizwan; Abhishek Banerjee thankfully had more than two lines to deliver this season and was fantastic as Bhati. Sikander Kher had a small role but he made his presence felt; it's amazing to see the transformation he has had in the last few years because as far as I remember he was never considered a good actor. The presence of Gopal Dutt put a smile on my face, what an amazingly talented actor he is; it's always a joy to watch him on screen. Ronjini Chakraborty had very few scenes as Aprajita but she made them count, especially the one where she had an argument with Dungeon Master. Saad Bilgrami is an extremely gifted actor and I am glad he got the opportunity to act in this series; the length of his role as Pawan Putra may not have been much but one did get a glimpse of the talent that he has. Ashish Vidyarthi is a legend in the field of acting and it's beyond me to judge his performance; TVF should consider themselves fortunate that he agreed to be a part of their project. Riddhi Dogra was pretty good as Prachi Meena, a role clearly inspired from Monica in Silicon Valley (2014).
Talking about the shortcomings of this season, the most critical one continues to be the lack of information about what exactly do our heroes do. What is their million dollar idea? What are they working on? What is the product that they have created? What kind of service do they plan to provide? What does their mobile application do? The first season worked fine because the focus was on the creators and their journey, but they shouldn't have repeated that in the second season as well. You won't get any kind of funding by saying that your team is capable of solving problems very well; that was a bit too much of generalization. Distraction and misdirection won't help them in hiding the elephant in the room. TVF is not making it easy for itself by delaying the product reveal so much; all they have to do is come up with a simple idea and then develop it further; they don't have to come up with a world changing idea, no one expects them to do so. There was a time when the idea of Pitchers was rejected by a television producer because he found it to be too intelligent for the viewers, and now Arunabh Kumar is making the same mistake of underestimating the intelligence level of the audience.
The second major problem with this season was of course the absence of Jitendra Kumar. It's difficult to digest, that after all these years TVF decided to make the second season of Pitchers but could not manage to bring Jitendra Kumar on board. TVF knows what he brings to a show; it's just impossible for any other actor or character to step into his shoes. Throughout the season, they kept teasing that Jeetu might make an appearance at some point, but unfortunately it never happened. I just hope that Jitendra Kumar was busy filming the next season of Kota Factory or some other show, and he did not purposefully opt out of the show because he had lost interest, because that would be quite sad. Jitendra Kumar's absence was very much felt in this season and I really hope they bring him back in the next season.
Why were the showrunners trying to link Kota Factory with Pitchers? They were hinting that Jitendra Kumar left the start-up and became a teacher in Kota, and Prachi Meena is the sister of Balmukund Meena, who happens to be the favourite student of Jitendra; but problem is that things don't add-up. In Kota Factory, Jitendra Kumar has been teaching for at least two years because that's how long he has been teaching Meena, but in Pitchers we were told that it's been 6 months since Jitendra left, and in those six months he met Meena, who used his application and is now apparently dead. Also, in Kota Factory Jitendra is named as Jitendra Kumar, while in Pitchers he is known as Jitendra Maheshwari. So quite clearly the showrunners haven't thought it through. I just hope they are not serious about this and this was just their way of giving the audience a hint that Jitendra Kumar could not be a part of Pitchers because he was busy filming the new season of Kota Factory.
The music of this season is outstanding to say the least. It's beyond my understanding as to why Vaibhav Bundhoo hasn't made it big in the Indian Film Industry. Hindi Music Industry is running low on talent and yet a musician like Vaibhav, who composes one amazing song after another, hasn't been discovered by any producer! Music is a category in which TVF never goes wrong, and that streak continues with the new season of Pitchers. The background score and songs never feel out of place and beautifully enhance the emotions attached to the scene.
I went into this season with no expectations but thoroughly enjoyed watching it. I really hope that the showrunners reveal everything about the product in the next season because they are really testing our patience now. Talking about other startups and throwing in inspirational quotes won't help them in hiding the elephant in the room, they will have to address this issue now.
If this season had disappointed us, then writers Prashant Kumar, Shubham Sharma and Talha Siddiqui would have been the fall guys, so keeping that in mind, all three of them deserve our appreciation because they managed to come up with five strong episodes. The writers have managed to expand the storyline in the most organic way possible and have crafted a screenplay that comes across as much more organized, realistic and polished. The writers have sprinkled a few nostalgic moments randomly to keep the essence of the previous season alive, but I am really glad that some extremely stupid and over the top scenes were avoided in this season, for example, Jitendra Kumar's scenes with his father were a bit difficult to believe in the first season; why would a married man sleep with his father and also get scared of moving out of the house without permission? The writers may not have talked about the kind of work 'Pragati. AI' does but have added a good dose of comedy and emotions in the screenplay, which is paced very well and remains engaging throughout the season.
Abhay Mahajan and Arunabh Kumar were the heroes of this season, not only as actors but also as characters. In the first season, Abhay Mahajan's role was restricted to providing comic relief in every episode, but in this season the actor inside him flourishes beautifully. Abhay's nuanced portrayal of Saurabh Mandal gives a hint of the kind of brilliance this actor possesses. The return of Pitchers also marks the return of Arunabh Kumar into the field of acting and it was wonderful to see him play Yogi once again. This time Yogi was much more restrained and understated compared to last time but was fascinating to watch nevertheless. Even though Arunabh pretty much plays himself in this show, it's always amazing to see him deliver his dialogues, because he does it in a very effortless and natural way. Naveen Kasturia as Naveen Bansal was once again extremely believable, although I did not like his character that much. This team is the creation of Naveen but somehow he himself doesn't come across as a team player. By keeping things to himself, taking key decisions on his own, ignoring the co-founders of his company and pointing fingers at everyone when things go wrong, he has turned himself into pretty much the villain of this show and it does seem like things are only going to get worse in the next season. Sometimes I wonder what exactly Naveen's role in this company is; Yogi comes across as a much better motivator, Jitendra Maheshwari was the technical head and Saurabh Mandal works tirelessly as a manager and always comes across as the most sensible person in the room, but what does Naveen do ? What doesn't help matters is that we don't know what exactly their company does. It would really help if we knew what Naveen's vision is.
The supporting actors and actresses have done a praiseworthy job as well in this season. Shreya Singh was extremely warm and endearing as Hina Rizwan; Abhishek Banerjee thankfully had more than two lines to deliver this season and was fantastic as Bhati. Sikander Kher had a small role but he made his presence felt; it's amazing to see the transformation he has had in the last few years because as far as I remember he was never considered a good actor. The presence of Gopal Dutt put a smile on my face, what an amazingly talented actor he is; it's always a joy to watch him on screen. Ronjini Chakraborty had very few scenes as Aprajita but she made them count, especially the one where she had an argument with Dungeon Master. Saad Bilgrami is an extremely gifted actor and I am glad he got the opportunity to act in this series; the length of his role as Pawan Putra may not have been much but one did get a glimpse of the talent that he has. Ashish Vidyarthi is a legend in the field of acting and it's beyond me to judge his performance; TVF should consider themselves fortunate that he agreed to be a part of their project. Riddhi Dogra was pretty good as Prachi Meena, a role clearly inspired from Monica in Silicon Valley (2014).
Talking about the shortcomings of this season, the most critical one continues to be the lack of information about what exactly do our heroes do. What is their million dollar idea? What are they working on? What is the product that they have created? What kind of service do they plan to provide? What does their mobile application do? The first season worked fine because the focus was on the creators and their journey, but they shouldn't have repeated that in the second season as well. You won't get any kind of funding by saying that your team is capable of solving problems very well; that was a bit too much of generalization. Distraction and misdirection won't help them in hiding the elephant in the room. TVF is not making it easy for itself by delaying the product reveal so much; all they have to do is come up with a simple idea and then develop it further; they don't have to come up with a world changing idea, no one expects them to do so. There was a time when the idea of Pitchers was rejected by a television producer because he found it to be too intelligent for the viewers, and now Arunabh Kumar is making the same mistake of underestimating the intelligence level of the audience.
The second major problem with this season was of course the absence of Jitendra Kumar. It's difficult to digest, that after all these years TVF decided to make the second season of Pitchers but could not manage to bring Jitendra Kumar on board. TVF knows what he brings to a show; it's just impossible for any other actor or character to step into his shoes. Throughout the season, they kept teasing that Jeetu might make an appearance at some point, but unfortunately it never happened. I just hope that Jitendra Kumar was busy filming the next season of Kota Factory or some other show, and he did not purposefully opt out of the show because he had lost interest, because that would be quite sad. Jitendra Kumar's absence was very much felt in this season and I really hope they bring him back in the next season.
Why were the showrunners trying to link Kota Factory with Pitchers? They were hinting that Jitendra Kumar left the start-up and became a teacher in Kota, and Prachi Meena is the sister of Balmukund Meena, who happens to be the favourite student of Jitendra; but problem is that things don't add-up. In Kota Factory, Jitendra Kumar has been teaching for at least two years because that's how long he has been teaching Meena, but in Pitchers we were told that it's been 6 months since Jitendra left, and in those six months he met Meena, who used his application and is now apparently dead. Also, in Kota Factory Jitendra is named as Jitendra Kumar, while in Pitchers he is known as Jitendra Maheshwari. So quite clearly the showrunners haven't thought it through. I just hope they are not serious about this and this was just their way of giving the audience a hint that Jitendra Kumar could not be a part of Pitchers because he was busy filming the new season of Kota Factory.
The music of this season is outstanding to say the least. It's beyond my understanding as to why Vaibhav Bundhoo hasn't made it big in the Indian Film Industry. Hindi Music Industry is running low on talent and yet a musician like Vaibhav, who composes one amazing song after another, hasn't been discovered by any producer! Music is a category in which TVF never goes wrong, and that streak continues with the new season of Pitchers. The background score and songs never feel out of place and beautifully enhance the emotions attached to the scene.
I went into this season with no expectations but thoroughly enjoyed watching it. I really hope that the showrunners reveal everything about the product in the next season because they are really testing our patience now. Talking about other startups and throwing in inspirational quotes won't help them in hiding the elephant in the room, they will have to address this issue now.
