Customer Centricity is often touted as a key value for brands and corporations. How many of them truly imbibe this and practise it is a different matter. On the flip side, products and services that embrace this and deliver ahead of changing expectations win big. It is the same for content. When you are rooted to your market and you know the pulse of the customer you are engaging with, you hold a mirror to them and the story just plays out in their heads. All you need to do is to ensure great writing and characters who they can relate to.
ASHOK’s FIVE reviews Season 1 of TVF #Pitchers that released ageas ago in 2015 and is now available on #ZEE5. This show narrates a story of entrepreneurship at a time when the start-up boom was just about unfolding in India. What is did brilliantly was to capitalise on the frenzy of young educated people jumping into a new venture on the back of a singular idea and tons of self-belief. As one can imagine, this was the generation that had never seen scarcity or bureaucratic hurdles when it came to acquiring anything. All you had to do was click a button. That led to a much higher risk appetite and the threshold to say bye to a boring job was very low. That said, #TVFPitchers is an intelligent show with exemplary writing, witty humor and a set of characters who are eminently relatable!
The other highlight of the show is the use of relationships and how collateral damage from professional decisions can impact these. If you look at the break-up of Naveen and Shreya, you notice how tastefully this is done. There is no hyper emotion or accusation against anyone. Instead, there is empathy and respect; almost as if this is a circumstance outside of their control. There is no tone of admonishment or moral high ground taken here. On the other hand, the cat and mouse duel between Jitu and his father is definitely the same issue in most homes. However, the writers choose to add a nice touch of humour here. Jitu remains the meek husband and subservient son till the end but then loses his temper at the end in an unusual turn of events!
Writers #BiswapatiSarkar and #ArunabhKumar do great justice to the supporting characters and how they are used to offset the four main protagonists. Sample the way Dungeon Master is presented. Similarly, Jitu’s wife Soumya, Garry (Bhujiawala) and Shreya are all fleshed out well. Season 1 consists of five episodes and it is an amazing statistic that each episode has logged in a million views. With an IMDb rating of 9.7, this show is surely right up there!
All the four leads put in effortless and brilliant performances. #ArunabhKumar as the hot-headed yogi is the leader of the pack. His run-ins with the dark horse Mandal (#AbhayMahajan) are plotted well. Then there is #NaveenKasturia as Naveen Bansal and the talented #JitendraKumar as Jitu. #MaanviGagroo is fantastic as Shreya and #AkankshaThakur plays Saumya. Music by #VaibhavBundhoo is apt for the dramatic scenes. The show is directed by #AmitGolani.
#TVFPitchers became the rage for a cohort that identified completely with it in real life as well as on screen. Many of the dialogues became legendary. We anticipate the return of the foursome in season 2 . For the moment, that first episode and the advise doled out by Bhati reverberates in your ear long after you have binge-watched the series. “Tu beer hai”.....
