Bicchoo Ka Khel And Anamika: Two Serials You Might Have Missed

Bicchoo Ka Khel and Anamika, here are two serials that you might've missed on television.

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Bicchoo Ka Khel And Anamika: Two Serials You Might Have Missed
BicChoo Ka Khel: Some more mayhem and maha-mari in the land of   bakchodi and maara-mari. The small-town formula which started on the big-screen with Anand Rai’s Tanu Weds Manu then went in Barelli Ki Barfi. That formula has now stagnated into a bomb ka gola exploding erratically in and around the backwater  of Uttar Pradesh. Ganga maiyya ki  Jai ho!

This one looks like a less self-important variation on Mirzapur. Indeed  the USP of Bicchoo Ka Khel is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Otherwise it’s the same bucolic characters speaking in the same drawl with multiple mader..ds thrown in for crude measure.  Even the lead is  the same. And the only way I can tell Divyendu apart in this serial  from Mirzapur is his name. Munna Bhaiyya is now Akhil Bhaiyya and he  loves his Baapu like a a pal. They piss and they pee (drink) together  like two teenagers just discovering a life beyond masturbation.

I  liked the cheesy camaraderie between Divyendu Sharma and his screen dad Mukul Chadda. While Daddy has his little fun on the side , Beta stands guard outside…If you think that’s cringy, then well..you are in the wrong place. The mofussil mayhem and the tawdry titillation of  the cow belt is by now a streaming reality. Deal with it.

Sadly the father-son locker-room bonding ends all too soon and Divyendu’s Akhil Bhaiyya  goes on a revenge rampage that  involves seedy politicians, sexually active women and corrupt cops, all of whom share a common affinity to foul language and high-octane  pulp drama.

It’s sad to see this series enthusiastically recreating the Mirzapur flavor when it could have  been a lot more than just a cut-and-paste  job. Nonetheless Divyendu is an actor who refuses to be daunted  by  repetition. He works towards making Akhil Bhaiyya far more amusing and far less intimidating than Munna Bhaiyya.But seriously, it’s time for  an image-change for Divyendu and the series on desi spaghetti westerns with the body count being matched by the bawdy backchat.


Anamika: Adultery is no laughing matter. But if  it goes into the hands of  Hera Pheri director Priyadarshan, it could become a source  of unintended hilarity.Providentially Priyan controls the urge to  invoke  mirth  out of a potentially tragic story. Hopping gingerly into a neglected sexually unfulfilled housewife’s wild passionate affair with a young handsome stranger is familiar terrain in Indian cinema (Satyajit Ray’s Charulata being the classic rendition of this theme) but not an easy route to take for any filmmaker.

While dealing with the wife’s unfaithfulness the narrative is overly  faithful to all the clichés of adultery. Harsh Chaya’s workaholic  husband’s character is done in such broad strokes that he  appears  a caricature of  an uncaring husband. Pooja  Kumar as the torn wife gives an over-stressed theatrical performance. Every emotional response  is recorded on  her face in  italics. Aditya Seal as the handsome stranger who sweeps the housewife  off her feet  struggles to be  convincing against all  odds. It’s losing battle. The chemistry with his co-star  is  zero and their  big love-making scene is devoid of  any noticeable passion. However Seal is an  actor with the potential to shine even in a situation less than  divine. He  makes a strong impact as a dark sinister stranger with a  past  who has a blast. Pun intended.

How they meet is an amusing courtship game involving a lost wallet , a ring and a debt  that seems to have written by  someone who believes anxiety  can be funny if  put  in  the  right hands. We can see  the  big revelation  at the end  coming at us  from miles away  in this  short film. 



Image source: IMDb