Rasbhari toys with the classic hot for teacher trope, but takes it further. Swara Bhaskar stars as Shanoo Mehta, a beautiful English teacher a la Miss Chandni in Mein Hoo Na. Shanoo soon becomes the subject of intrigue of all of Meerut, because she has the je ne se quoi that makes men melt at her feet and the sex drive to seduce them away from their wives.

Into the mix is her lovelorn student Nand Tyagi, who wants to make his teacher ‘the mother of his children.’ The town swirls with rumors, and Nand does absolutely everything to spy on her until she rejects his advances… and that’s when the story gets interesting and the truth about Rasbhari is revealed. As a concept, this story is pretty good. It hits the nail on the head of the gossipy small town mentality (Bollywood’s pet setting these days), as well as how women have to either be hypersexual or have all their sexual urges sucked out of them when they become housewives.

Perhaps the real reason that this show has got such poor reviews is because many viewers are still stuck with this mentality. It was interesting to see a web series challenge it. Most of the actors were also great, especially Ayushman Saxena, who is perfect as the whip-smart, hormonal schoolboy, as well as the band of aunties who antagonize Shanoo. However, there are a few weak links, most notably Swara Bhaskar. We had high expectations from her after her previous roles, but here she’s just trying too hard and her fake accent is just grating. Moreover, the pacing of the first few episodes is annoying and it takes a while to get into the meat of the story.

This show is worth watching, simply for the ideals that it discusses and taboos it aims to break. However, it’s no Oscar winner.