Review: Colors' Rangrasiya

Show name: Rangrasiya Channel: Colors Leads: Sanaya Irani and Ashish Sharma Director: Siddharth Sengupta Producer: Nautanki Telefilms Okay, how do we begin? Well, if one would ask us to define Rangrasiya in a sentence, we would not rack our brains a lot and utter, “It is a Kismi bar chocolate wrapped in a Dairy Milk wrapper”. Oh, mars the level of profoundness? But that’s the best we can give to the show given its technical superiority but archaic (like a Dinosaur egg) plot. Before moving on, we must mention that one of the benefits for viewers (and critics) reaps from continued and sustained excellence in the drama field is that writers, directors and producers, perhaps feeling pressured to stand out even among the best, are experimenting more noticeably with tone, pace, structure and visual impact. But alas, they fail miserably over and over again at the conceptual level. Nothing is really fresh these days on Indian television. Though the word creativity is overrated, still a certain amount of sparkle is expected. Moving on, watch Rangrasiya and you would fathom immediately that it’s come out of the head of Saurabh Tewari. The man thinks cinema but does television, which might not work all the time. We are sure many have seen the show by now, and have realized that a chirpy and lively Paro (Sanaya Irani) is pitted against the angry young man Rudra (Ashish Sharma). They will meet, differences will crop up, situations will lead to them falling in love and blah blah blah. While watching the first episode and the quick jump from the kids’ childhood to the present day affair, did impress us. We thought, thank God the pace is swift. But what comes next forced us to pop an Aspirin or two. Slow motion close up shots of Sanaya Irani and Ashish Sharma (we know they are the leads, big deal…itna footage?), and over the top background score, forced us to reach for the remote to watch Arnab Goswami shouting his lungs out. Yes, at times even he is tolerable given the ludicrous nature of plot progression in daily soaps. Sanaya beams through the desert ala Aishwarya Rai or Deepika Padukone from a Bhansali movie. Ashish’s looks and expressions match that of a desert cactus. Sanaya, as usual comes across affable initially, then slips into her comfort zone of being amplified. Ashish looks good on screen but hey…get a little more emotive and expressive. There’s no harm in ample usage of your face muscles. What really impressed us is the show’s high production value (Produced by Nautanki Films-Saurabh Tewari and Abhinav Shukla) and the cinematography (Sanjay Memane and Anil Katke). The shots are captivating and lend a lucid viewing experience. Dialogues written by Raghuveer Shekawat are good but actors need to work hard on the diction part. What really stands out is the setting, costumes (Ritu Deora) and the art direction (Sumit Mishra). Clap for the team in that front!!! We have a suggestion for the creative team and director Siddharth Sengupta: cut down on the close up slow motion shots and yawning build up before scenes. A girl getting molested and being saved by the hero is so so clichéd. You guys can do a lot better. Rangrasiya is a show which is nothing special but we hope the coming tracks would prove us wrong. And yes, we loved the title song (Sourav Kalsi). Power and energy to team Rangrasiya!!!