Review : Sarabhai v/s. Sarabhai is a half-hour weekly aired on Star One every monday on the 9:00 pm slot. It is the story of an elite urban family - the Sarabhais which is kind of ’’separated’’ with the parents Indravadhan Sarabhai and Maya Sarabhai staying in a posh society and their son and daughter-in-law living just opposite them- Saahil and monisha. So, its dysfunctionality with a comic twist.
The serial basically concentrates on the bitchy yet funny tiffs between the very classy and sophisticated Maya and her cute penny-saver daughter-in-law Monisha.Yet, the star of the show is Satish Shah who plays the original mean machine by playing kitchen politics with his own wife and daughter-in-law and once he has crested trouble, he sits back to enjoy it like a 70 MM film.
THE SCAPEGOAT-CUM-PUNCHING BAG of the show is poor poor Saahil who gets torn between his uppity snobbish mom and his melodramatic hyperenergetic wife.He is the peacemaker while Indravadhan is the trouble-maker.He hates the tyrannical attitude of Maya and gets thrills out of irritating her but loves her all the same.So, all those people wondering that what they’ll do after retirement, kindly follow Indravadhan School of Thought.He He!
Last but not the least is a funny guy called Rosesh, Indravadhan and Maya’s elder son, a caricatured metrosexual with a funny accent which can send you into splits and Maya’s ’’mama’s boy’’.The quarrels between Indravadhan and Rosesh are really funny! So, Sarabhais are a family which doesn’t stay together, doesn’t eat together, yet their fights and underlined affection in the garb of tussels in a way keeps them together.
Satish Shah and Ratna Pathak are perfect as the sophisticated upmarket ageing couple and their comic timing is perfect. Rest of the cast is also adequate, Rupali Ganguly does a great job as the ’’Drama Queen’’ of the family. Deven Bhojani deserves special mention as the competent and innovative director of this cute barrel of fun..
Sarabhai v/s. Sarabhai can be safely termed as ’’ a mean comedy with class’’ because it hardly ever shows fickle humour or slapstick comedy.
It is straight in-your-face and tickles the funny bone without going over-the-top.If ever the script falters, the actors make up for it.It tends to get monotonous at times but just when you are about to lose interest, it bounces back with a fantastic episode. If I had to rate it, I’ll give it 8/10.