Watching Tarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah(TMKOC) everyday has become a habit now. I stumbled upon this show while surfing channels couple of months ago. Being a Gujju myself, I used to read’Tarak Mehta na Undha Chashma’ in Chitralekha regularly. So, the title of the show made me curious. I watched it for a week and now I am hooked.
So what is the show all about? As like any typical comedy show, it is a situation based show where there are different characters often behave funnily.
There are two main protagonists along with a fairly large ensemble cast.
Dilip Joshi as Jethalal Gada is fantastic. He is natural to the core. Poor guy is stuck between a semi-literate wife and a strict father. But don’t start feeling sympathetic towards him. He scolds his wife everyday, yet keeps hitting on a neighbor’s hot wife. Although his overtures are meant to be silly, this aspect of the show just doesn’t work for me. I cannot laugh at someone’s caring wife being ridiculed in such a manner.
Disha Vakani as Dayaben Gada is my favorite character. Her innocent stupidity born out of being semi-literate creates some really hilarious situations. She makes his husband Jethalal’s life a living nightmare by her lack of commonsense. Her performance and punches takes the show to the top tier. The trademark of the show is the way Dayaben reacts to a supposedly catastrophic event - with her two hands on her temples, big eyeballs staring at the roof with the exclamation -’Hey Maa! Mataji!’
Then there is Champaklal Gada who adores his daughter-in-law and scolds his son for scolding his wife everyday. Tipendra - a.k.a. Tapu is the naughty son of Jethalal and Daya - one more character who creates a whole lot of problems for his Pappa.
’Gokuldham Co-Operative Society’, where the show is meant to be situated has many other residents whose daily lives are food for our laughter.
Sardarji Sodhi and his Parsi wife. Love marriage. Sodhi is shown to be a bit eccentric and his wife compensate his properly.
Atmaram Bhide - a school teacher who is miser and also secretary of the society. He loves to give speeches. He and Jethalal keep arguing regularly.
Dr. Hathi - he has a massive body. Yet he likes to eat each and everything coming his way.
Babita - a young hap girl with whom Jethalal tries to flirt at every opportunity. She is married to a South Indian lad Aiyar.
And in the end there is a character called Tarak Mehta who is Jethalal’s man Friday. He is Jethalal’s marriage councilor, problem solver and a good friend.
One of the things that attracts me the most to this show that it is not an entirely mindless comedy. It gives meaningful insight into everyday problems in a humorous way. It is also a family show and there is no vulgar comedy whatsoever. In many cases, they try to give a message in the storyline - such as, thy shalt not cheat in exam, thy shalt help the poor.
I am not a TV fan myself. There are probably only three shows that I am hooked to right now. If you are exhausted after a long day at work, TMKOC is the answer. I can almost guarantee, it will relieve you from some of your stress.