I watch very few hindi serials & this is one of the few ones I like. Till I finish reading & writing a review for my next book...... I thought of writing a quick review for this serial, for those who have not seen/heard of it before :)
Lipstick is a new serial on Zee TV, telecasted at 11.00pm sun-thursday and is being promoted as adult night soap. The story tells the war between two leading publishing houses: UPC and Hawkers & Stands.
UPC publishes a filmi magazine called Darpan and is owned by Vijay Singhania, a man known for his principles and high moral values.
While H & S publishes a filmi gossip magazine called Lipstick, named so because LIPSTICK -is as essential to a woman as gossip. Jagan Luthra a rival publisher, who is still in love with Vijay Singhania’s wife Rohini, owns this magazine. It is Jagan’s long time ambition to destroy Singhania, professionally as well as personally. Hence, their film magazines Darpan and Lipstick are cut-throat competitors.
Besides these two characters the story revolves around two other important characters :
Sheetal, daughter of Vijay Singhania. In the very first episode of the serial Sheetal returns to her father’s home. The reason being that she finds her husband Dinesh in bed with a man !!! Shocked and disgusted, she confronts & leaves Dinesh for good. She tells her parents about her husband’s homosexuality and wants her place back in UPC as the managing editor, which she was handling before getting married. However, her father tells her that her place has been given to someone else, and that she will now have to share the position with the other girl.
Suniti, a hard working, middle class girl who has made it to the post of managing editor of Darpan. Naturally she is ekdum opposite of Sheetal & their very first meeting starts on a hate note. Sheetal hates Suniti for her efficiency and for the place that she has made in Vijay Singhania’s heart, who calls Suniti as beti. Here starts the war between Sheetal and Suniti. Sheetal openly shows her dislike for Suniti but Vijay Singhania intervenes and makes it clear that Sheetal can not take Suniti’s place. Sheetal feels humiliated and decides to take her revenge on Suniti, come what may.
It is then the story of how Sheetal manipulates & gets Suniti out of UPC. Later Suniti plots her revenge on UPC by joining rival magazine Lipstick & also indulging in the same gossipy business that was against her principle earlier. Some of the articles Suniti publishes are targetted to mar the Singhanias. One such article becomes the reason of Vijay Singhania’s suicide and now there is more bad blood between the two leading ladies.
Being a story related to Bollywood, there are lots of other characters and situations that have been picked up from our Hindi film industry and have been interesting woven into the serial story. Many of the scenes tells the inside story of Bollywood and raises the curtain of mystery from the lives of the stars, baring it all - the joys, sorrows, irony of being rich and famous.
The actor who played Vijay Singhania was excellent & very convincing. The serial has become little less appealing after his death. However, it is now Nigar Khan, who plays the role of Sheetal who steals the show from everyone else. She has a stunning personality & her eyes are hypnotic !! [with some help from contact lenses] ;) The actress playing Suniti is Shewta Salve, fairly okay but cannot act to save her life. Overall the other actors are good too. Though one wonders what is it that persuaded Aly Khan to take a miniscule role - of Sheetal’s lover - in this serial. Waste of good talent. The other actors & actresses are new, so I don’t know most of their names. But the performances are fairly good. Must mention here that in the looks department, none of these new actors/actresses do justice to our bollywood hero/heroines !
The song of this serial : Kuch Dil ne kaha Kuch chupke se boli lipstick - is lovely, sung by Shaan & a new singer Gayatri. It is a beautifully picturised & is one of the most appealing factors of the serial.
Though Lipstick started off with a bang lately its become a little too predictable, yet it is definitely better than watching all those saas-bahu-ekkkkkkkkta kapoor sagas !!