YOU KNOW WHAT? TRULY this is every Ghar’s Kahaani! 30 people live in one house, scheming witch-like women battle one hell of a jagatmaata chaste bahu, ladies sleep in saris, 24 karat jewellery and full makeup, tears are gangaajal ( why go to Haridwar) marriages and extra-marital affairs are playtoys, and best of all if your diyaa blows off man are you in trouble! Welcome to the story of every house’s misfortunes ( including destruction of business, out of wedlock offspring, long-lost children and murderous wives), the inimitably imitable, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki. And yes, I was being sarcastic. My sincere apologies. But do have any idea why I was sarcastic in the first place?
Well, as expected, being a Ekta Kapoor serial that has managed to stretch itself for 3 yrs, the story revolves around a maha-joint family with n number of bahus, beta and dadaji bistar pe leta. (After all, small families never keep the serial running too long!) This time it’s the happy, pure family of the Aggarwals. Meet the family!
Head honcho Babuji (Deepak Qazir), son of somehow still living mother, Dadiji, has had two wives and as a result a good six children, Om, Kamal, Ajay, Sonali, Chhaya and... oops I lost count. The wife still breathing is Maaji (Lily Patel), who dotes open the ideal son and husband, incidentally her stepson, Om (Kiran Karmarkar). Om happens to be married to the even more holier-than-thou Parvati, and man is she too good to be true! Unfortunately the lives of the other members are not as gold-polished.( Duh! If they were all hunky-dory, what would they shed gangaajal tears for? Apni akal lagao)
So now you’ve met the players, here comes the game. I mean story- you know game, story they’re pretty much the same.
It’s a real pity that what has kept this serial running more than anything else, is evil wretched people trying to wreck the family, succeeding for a little while ( hence the tears) and then being thrown out on the ear. As soon as one falls out, another falls in, with deeper schemes and a possible collaboration with ex-mogambos. Evidently, they’re going to run out of gas some day.
Broadly, you can divide the story into nine chunks, (I’ll call them kaands as in the Ramayana, to which the family’s lives are often compared) Since I know your on a tight schedule, I’ll only discuss parts worth your time. The Chhaya marriage problems, the Pallavi (Vamp1) Kaand, the Deven(Villain1)-Khushi Rape Kaand, the Sanjay Doshi (Villain 2) kaand, the Out- of House Kaand, the Ambika/Mallika (Vamp 2) Kaand, the Ajay Kills Avantika Kaand, the Ashlesha (Vamp3)Kaand) and lastly- Aryan, Shruti-Monallika Kaand.
Basically the evil Pallavi , wife of Om’s brother, Kamal wrecks the house, only to be slapped and thrown out. Then her tears soften the family’s hearts, and they let her in, only to be betrayed again. The oh-so-pujaniya Parvati gets a jerk when her ex-fiancee Sanjay Doshi tries to return in her life. A family friend Khushi gets raped by a cousin Deven, and after a long ’Karmanyev Vaadakiraste’ sequence gets placed behind bars. Then if that wasn’t enough, his fiancee, pretty Mallika urf Ambika... u got it! Enters house, wrecks it, gets caught, thrown out on ear. Then Om’s brother, Ajay gets murdered by his wife Avantika for his affair, for which after a long investigation, she finally gets caught. Then Ambika’s sister Ashlesha- enters, wrecks, caught, thrown (EWCT).
As you can see, the EWCT formula couldn’t last long, so the pathetic scriptwriter zipped 20 yrs ahead. The leitmotif of this last and final kaand is that Mallika , who has got married to Sanjay Doshi, has a son Aryan, and Aryan falls for parent’ s arch rival’s daughter, Shruti (Om and Parvati’s Kid). In between, Ajay and Avantika’s daughter Monallika gets caught in the tangle.
There’s no point discussing this any further. Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki is boring, and I don’t want my review to be boring. There have been many points where I actually walked off out of the Aaaaa tune in the background with tears and all. But I think I’m going ballistic on the firing. There is a good side too.
Certain performances are worth a look Shweta Kawatra is convincing as the conniving vamp, and Tisca Chopra as Mallika has interesting facial contortions. Kiran Karmarkar as Om is amazing- he is simply brilliant in the emotional sequences! Saakshi Tanwar as Parvati- well no comment- her role is not paak-pavitra that her acting doesn’t get noticed. All the others have too minor roles to discuss.
Music is brilliant, specially the background music for Mallika, Pallavi and the Khushaal- parivaar sitar tunes. It does manage to involve the audience partialy with its mucic albeit only a wee bit.
Characterisation is not up to the mark with many one-dimensional characters. The main protagonist, Parvati, apparently the naari everone is supposed to emulate and relate to. But Parvati is too damn Savitri. She doesn’t even crack jokes, have fun, or pull someone’s legs, because she’s too busy reforming the asatya of the world. Tulsi of Kyunki... is better any day. But I have to admit. The vamps are stunning. It is so much more fun to watch focussed sophisticated and pretty ladies who know what they want, than kumkum- marked and zari- engulfed bahus who just cook baingan and gossip in the kitchen. Yet again an Ekta Kapoor serial has propagated the regressive dakyanoosi view that there is only black and white, and all housewives are a family’s riches and all confident businesswomen, are well..the word rhymes with riches. On the name of parampara and sanskaars, all this serial gives you is a feeling of time-waste
The pros of this serial like music, dress (Mallika’s boatneck blouses and Pallavi’s bindis were all the rage some time back) , a few twists cannot make up for the biggest drawback- a poor script that drags in new characters at any time, follows the EWTC formula, and leaves the viewer fed up with the thousand and one rishtas. Had the serial had a stronger base than just a joint family who jointly give each other trouble, it would have been a completely different ball game.
So should you watch if you already aren’t?if you want a nice afternoon soap to curl up on the bed to watch , this is for you. But I warn you, like all saas-bahu serials, this too is addictive. An end isn’t anywhere near the horizon. But the end of half an hour every day certainly is.
I don’t recommend this simply because it functions on a system that doesn’t survive much in towns anymore, because everyone’s always crying and getting slapped, regressive views are sent to the audience.
This serial is not Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki, it’s Kahani Gadbad Ki, Kahani Good-Bad Ki and most of all Kahaani Bad-Bad Ki. I’ll leave your choice to you, but I’ll end it with the title song with a twist...
Rishton Ki Pooja Jahaan Ho, Aadar Badon ka Jahaan Ho, Bhige jo Mamta ka Aanchal, Aanso bane Gangajaal- PLEASE TELL ME WHERE ALL THIS IS BECAUSE IT ISN’T IN A COMMON INDIAN GHAR!!