I want to start out this article by first saying that I loved mostly everything about Bandish Bandits by Amazon Prime, but you know by the title that there is an "except" coming after.
So I avoided the show for a long time after seeing the trailer, thinking it's just another masala love story with Rajasthan Gharanas music as a backdrop. Then I listened to one of the songs "Garaj" by Shankar Ehshan Loy, who I must say, have outdone themselves after a long time. The song tickled my curiosity and I gave in and watched it. And loved it.
Everything other than the acting by the leads Ritwik Bhowmik as Radhe and Shreya Chaudhary as Tamanna were perfect, which is fair since they are both freshers, but by no means bad. But Naseerudin Shah, Sheeba Chaddha, and Atul Kulkarni absolutely dominate the scenes they are in.
The Rajasthani Gharana music that I thought was a backdrop from the trailer, turned out to be much more than that. The show manages to dive deep into Indian classical music without having to bore the viewers. Now I want to take a moment to address this topic as in Indian cinema SO little attention is given to classical music. All the programs centered around classical music either air on Doordarshan or is a foreign documentary. The only classical music dedicated movies I remember are in black and white from the times of Manna Dey and the gang. I just want to thank the creators just for bringing classical music out in an entertaining form and to the actors and musicians who did an excellent job of justifying it.
Here's where it gets tricky though. This is the part where the "BUT" comes in. The show, in a desperate need to connect to the younger crowd, uses a lot of cuss words and some adult lingo that prevents it from being watched together in a family. The show has a perfect setting to be a family show: tradition, family issues, classical music, great actors, and history. But it ruins that by adding cursing and adult words. It seems to be a trend these days that if you don't have gaalis in your show/movie it's not cool, that people will not connect. Since everyone cusses these days, it looks more authentic. The truth is, it doesn't. Indian people grew up on generations of movies that never cussed on screen. Now, I understand if a character calls for foul language, if it fits the narrative then by all means cuss away. But if you watch the show you will know it was totally uncalled for.
It pissed me off that I couldn't show this golden content of a show to my mother. This affects a lot to the older generations like parents and grandparents, for whom there isn't much content available to begin with. I saw how this show could have been a bridge between two generations. Fusing the classical with the hip millennials. For older people to connect with the young, for them to sit with their children and watch something together. But at last, the showrunners do what they must to get more revenue/viewers.
In my opinion, I think they should totally do a PG / censored version. Win-win.
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