THE GOOD
’’ Thank God!’’ I thought as I switched on the TV that Wednesday night, at nine. ’’ No family dramas of weeping hundreds jostled into one house. A serial with a difference- one about hospitals, and the bond between doctor and patient, and the pulsing life within the white walls. So what if it’s a straight- lift of Chicago Hope- at least it’s zara hatke.’’ So must have thought many hundreds that switched on that night. And they had all the reason to. Sanjivani is a story of four interns at a hospital called Sanjivani, and their lives at professional and personal level. Hey-dude guy Rahul, sweet small-town Juhi, smiley Simran and O-so funny Omi revealed a totally new perspective to the run of the mill clinic visit. Sanjivani seemed to have breathed life into the stereotype small screen serial. Each episode various aspects of doctor ka jeevan, be it cancer patients wanting to take their daughter down the aisle, Parkinson’s disease, eczema, a dancer’s amputation or surgical accidents in OT3. It was truly enlightening back then, despite a slight lack of research and over- colourful and vibrant painting of the hospital. The biggest breakthrough was the portrayal of how we misconstrue doctors, who’re ordinary human beings, to be some divine miracle- workers.The angle of Dr. Shashank’s choice between duty and family is very well depicted. As for acting, great! Mohnish Behl is superb, his little daughter is so shweet, and wife Smriti (Iravati Harshe) pulls off her role with aplomb. Omi makes you roll with laughter, while Juhi can evoke tears, and Simran hatred. On the personal front, here’s how the story goes. Rahul falls for Juhi, Juhi is friends with Rahul and Omi, and Simran, whose father is the shady hospital trustee, has been in love with Rahul right through childhood. That’s when the downslide begins. THE BAD Threatening to ruin Juhi’s doctor career, Simran’s father forces Rahul to marry his daughter, and Rahul gives in. This however leads Juhi to believe that Rahul is an unfaithful and Omi suddenly disappears from the scene, maybe to gain enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. In walks a new jovial guy called Aman, Juhi’s childhod friend, who’s supposedly head to toe in love with her. The sugar that gave Simran her sweetness decays into acid and drunken madness, a result of pampering by Daddy dear. To keep away the ominous threat of Juhi to her conjugal bliss, she purchases Aman’s integrity, and as luck would have it, Aman is a cheat. Rahul smells something fishy about him, that too just before Aman and Juhi’s engagement. All said and done, hospital life has melted off the scenes into mere pay-offs in Simran’s cabin. The medicines of Sanjivani turn into soapy solutions. THE UGLY What a waste is Sanjivani a medical boon! It seemed like a tonic to the tedious joint families on TV- but itself became a patient. And now viewers are impatient for the day it’ll revert to its zara hatke from the present zara jhatke modus operandi.Sanjivani started with something apart from the mainstream, holding out a promise of newness and something fresh.But now it has allowed itself to fall into the ronadhona- nextkyahona category. It even displays a message in the intro that medical practices followed in the serial are inauthentic! Just another wet hanky serial, with a red cross in the background. I pray with all my heart that this derailed serial finds its place in the sun again, just like the good old days. This serial can and has been damn good. Let’s just hope that the serial’s ugly look problems find a handy cure, and that Sanjivani, a Medical Boon, can soon become- Sanjivani a medical soon! Inshallah!