With Shah Rukh Khan and Aziz Mirza in the helm of affairs, it indeed looks like Ghar Ki Baat Hai. Well, we are talking about the new show on NDTV Imagine Ghar Ki Baat Hai (at 9.30 pm, Friday-Sunday), co-produced by Mirza, who’s a part of SRK’s Red Chillies Entertainment.
After his stint as a host in Kaun Banega Crorepati-3 and Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain, Shah Rukh has now decided to produce a show with an intension to ‘add cinematic value on television’.
SRK’s association with Mirza dates back to Circus days, a popular show with Shah Rukh in the lead. It aired on Doodarshan almost 20 years ago. Since then the duo has made many films together including Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, Yes Boss and Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani.
Coming back to Ghar Ki Baat Hai, it’s a light-hearted show sprinkled with little bit of drama and a pinch of humor, directed by actor-filmmaker Anant Mahadevan.
The show sees Sumeet Raghavan of Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai fame as Rajdeep, his wife Juhi Babbar as Radhika and Swapnil Joshi (of Shri Krishna and Tu Tu Main Main fame) as Sumeet’s brother-in-law Kakku. The story revolves around Rajdeep’s family and the situations they face in their day-to-day lives.
The peripheral cast includes Jayati Bhatia and Deven Munjal and Ali Asgar. Sounds familiar? No points for guessing, as SRK himself admits, Ghar Ki Baat Hai is his tribute to Doordarshan’s popular show Yeh jo Hai Zindagi, a big crowd puller in 1984-1985.
Though SRK claims it’s not a remake, the first episode seemed to be an out-and-out rip-off, where the husband pretends to forget their wedding anniversary and the wife files a divorce case on her brother’s provocation. We can’t help recall (at least those who have seen Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi) Shafi Inamdar, Swaroop Sampat and Rakesh Bedi coming alive on screen once again, fighting over a bowl of gulab jamun. Well, here it’s gajar ka halwa, if we can call that being original…
Jokes apart, Ghar Ki Baat Hai has far too many similarities with Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, the hit comedy that marked the debut of actor Satish Shah, who soon became a household name with his different avatar in every episode. Here, Ali Asgar as the lawyer, a watchman or a cook (as we get to see in the promos) looks convincing.
In the second episode (as we gather from the precap), we find Satish Shah, oops! Ali Asgar as the salesman trying to pacify Rajdeep and Radhika fight over a new couch. This one comes across as a frame-to-frame copy of one of the episodes in Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi. Being inspired is fine, but where is the difference we wonder.
Sumit Raghavan and Swapnil Joshi are good as usual. Juhi Babbar – daughter of Raj Babbar and a prominent theatre artiste – who debuts on TV with this one, also seems to be at ease facing the camera after the debacle of her film Kash Aap Hamare Hote in 2003.
However, if the forthcoming episodes turn out to be half as good as Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, then SRK is sure to hit the jackpot by giving a respite from the regular saas-bahu sob stories.
Surprise, surprise! if sources are to be believed the future episodes may also have special guests like Juhi Chawla, Shreyas Talpade and who knows SRK himself may just pop up one day.
Now up at Broken Frontier is my interview with Steve Mannion, from Asylum Press’ Fearless Dawn series, for which words like “cheesecake,” “romp” and “madcap” would be suitable descriptions. He’s a great artist too.