#REVIEW – KASAUTI ZINDAGI KI- 2 WEEK SEPT 14- SEPT 18 @HOTSTARUS @STARPLUS
In solidarity with the fans of #yehrishteyhainpyaarke, we have suspended all reviews of shows aired on @starplus and @hotstar till further notice
STORY STARTS FIXING ITS OPEN LOOPS TO CONCLUDE SOON
#REVIEW – KASAUTI ZINDAGI KI- 2 WEEK SEPT 7 – SEPT 12 @HOTSTARUS @STARPLUS
The story moved in scenes this past week
With the news of the series wrapping up soon, there is a casualty towards tying up loose ends – yet we believe that will be slowly spread over the next few days.
The first steps been taken, there is a plan with Anurag to win Prerna back by correcting all the wrongs he has done to her. Bajaj , on the other hand has no intention of letting Prerna go.
Komolika seems to continue on her warpath hey it seems that Nivedita is on a crossroad with her intentions
The love story of Kooky and Anurag’s nephew is blowing in the wind.
However, it does seem that the caretaker of the orphanage may now let Prerna know who her real daughter is.
So we guess with all these knots tying up – we may see this Parth Samthaan and Erica Fernandes starrer finally conclude
PLUS : story moves to its conclusion
MINUS: we are finally here
#REVIEW – KASAUTI ZINDAGI KI- 2 WEEK AUG 31- SEPT 5 @HOTSTARUS @STARPLUS
There was no specific movement in the story this week again. The same narrative continued in episodes of unending match of words between various characters. The lead pair of Anurag and Prerna, 
the psychopath Komolika and her brother, the mothers of Anurag and Prerna, the brother of Prerna and the father of Anurag.
For some reason, the story remained stuck in different rooms of the same marriage party for the whole of the week.
Anurag and Prerna got locked into a freezer for the last couple of episodes and the hope that they might talk to each other got lost in pointless dialogues that question logic and imagination.
Anyway, the whole week was simmered in this plot and the sub-plot of Anurag’s nephew falling in love with Rishabh Bajaj’s daughter. Also, a few scenes of stealing of Ronit, Komolika’s brother’s phone. That’s about it, this week from this story.
PLUS: Actor list.
MINUS: There is no story. There is no pace
#REVIEW ———KASAUTI ZINDAGI KI- 2 WEEK AUG 23- AUG 28 @HOTSTARUS @STARPLUS
Komolika continued to beat the odds in making life complicated for OONU , OONU baby, as she calls him. Prerna keeps storming into their home at every trigger Zoomolika throws her way.
So the entire week is spent in the cat and mouse chase with the story meandering its way from one bedroom to another as the Machiavellian villainess in designer sarees tried her plots to run down the orphanage where the orphan Sameedha lived, or tried to get information about the Rishab Basu’s businesses.
The good news for Kasauti fans is that Parth Samthaan is reported to have agreed to continue with the series. This is good for the longevity of the series and the adulation of the fans.
PLUS: Parth Samthaan and Erica Fernandez to continue with the series is good news this week
MINUS: We do not feel attached to the characters as we used to. Just the story. Meh
#REVIEW ———KASAUTI ZINDAGI KI- 2 WEEK AUG 17- AUG 22 @HOTSTARUS @STARPLUS
Kukki gets rusticated from her college for leaking the exam papers and Anurag, who is on the Board of Trustees, signs her rustication without checking her name. While she is distressed, Anurag and Prerna have a match of words where Prerna accuses him of hurting kukki to exact revenge from her.
Anurag is able to reverse the rustication for kukki and apologize to her , where she does not take the apology kindly.
In this entire sequence, while Anurag is at Bajaj House, he is expecting to see his daughter with Prerna there as well, not knowing that Prerna lost her daughter during the fire at an orphanage where Komolika had left her.
Moloy comes to know about Anurag being responsible for an intended murder of Prerna. He slaps his son asking him for reasons. Anurag asks his father to trust him while not telling his father of the exact reason. Komolika is doing Komolika, as usual. Looking for reasons to hurt or embarrass Prerna. That character is unrelentingly dedicated in mission circumstances.
Samidha floats in and out of the scenes and in one nice cozy dance has Anurag and Prerna ring a ring a roses.
There are about 3 confrontations between Anurag and Prerna in the week. All with no consequences except long loving stares, long angry stares, fingers pointing, song in the background, serenading flashbacks and absolutely no outcomes.
Anurag confesses to Komolika that he still loves Prerna. Komolika’s anger grade becomes red critical.
She tries to let Anurag know that Prerna loves Bajaj but in a flip of events, Anurag and Prerna get locked in the bathroom instead, They are found crying in each others arms and Komolika’s plan fails for the last time.
The week ended at everyone having an agenda. Anurag to see his daughter and keeping Prerna safe, Nivedita, Anurag’ sister , trying to seduce Bajaj, Moloy hiring a detective friend to figure out the reason why Anurag tried to kill Prerna, Prerna confused about her mission. Komolika trying to hurt Prerna, Bajaj’s intense love for Prerna, Shivani trying to marry Ronit, Ronit conspiring with Komolika to ensnare Prerna— wait a sec- did me miss a beat?
No. I guess we didnt require a white board to draw out this mesh of sub plots. But despite all this – we remain uninspired.
This story had potential but what is spoiling it for us are the bad edits, the sloppy writing, the terrible Komolika closeups, the hotch potch of plots upon plots upon plots – which might have done well when there were no content alternatives and limited choices- but not where the attention span of the audience is competing with that of a sparrow.
Parth Samthaan is moving on to his Bollywood film project soon and the production house is looking for alternatives to replace him. Those rumored to be spoken to are Zain Imam and Barun Sobti- both hunks – both good actors. Hope this story settles in self into a narrative soon and we can keep watching it.
PLUS: The story may have some skin finally
MINUS: Patched in Erica looks a job badly done now. The whole 6 episodes of the week is just never ending one engagement ceremony. And the engagement has not even happened yet.
UPDATE
Ekta Kapoor has been successful in retaining Erica with the team. Vivek Dahiya, Barun Sobti or Pearl V Puri are the actors being considered replacement of Parth Samthaan, as per reports.
#REVIEW ———KASAUTI ZINDAGI KI- 2 WEEK AUG 10- AUG 15 @HOTSTARUS @STARPLUS
With Parth Samthaan back to shoot this week, the pace and story of the series seemed to have picked up. Mr. Bajaj leaves for London, Prerna and Komolika continue their cat and mouse and Shivani in over the moon with Ronit, ready to get hitched. Anurag (Samthaan) comes to know about the impeding marriage and tries to convince Shivani not to marry Ronit. He has two confrontations with Prerna – one about Shivani’s wedding and another one about Mr Bajaj’s daughter Kukki’s rustication from her college ( where he is a Trustee) for leaking exam papers.
That was the week in Kasauti.
There was in fact more things happening backstage rather than on screen with this show. By Friday, many news outlets confirmed that both the leads of the show wanted to move on from the show to other projects and had submitted their resignations.
This will impact the show in a big way. The news on the block is also that the Production House is already shortlisting alternative actors for the replacement.
The future of this show is on the anvil now.
PLUS: A possibly interesting story if it sticks
MINUS: We thought things around this production would settle by now but it seems there is still a little tsunami around the corner.
#REVIEW ———KASAUTI ZINDAGI KI- 2 WEEK AUG 3- AUG 8 @HOTSTARUS @STARPLUS
In the series this week, the engagement party of Prerna’s sister Shivani getting engaged to Komolika’s brother Ronit, continued for 4 of the 6 episodes.
Komolika deploys her mother in law, Mohini ( who she calls Mo) to insult Prerna and her family for not giving the boy’s side substantial gifts. Mr Bajaj gifts the boy the stewardship of his company and then there is a dialog on his dedication towards ensuring that Prerna’s sister is happy, kinda social proofing his love for Prerna.
Then the fire starts in the house while the ceremony is going in.Prerna jumps into the raging fire to rescue a little girl called Samidha who is with the flower arrangement lady, but not before having a whole conversation about finding the little girl’s mother in the middle of the inferno. Don’t worry Mr Bajaj rescued them finally. The man thing. We guess Erica was still shooting the scenes from home so she did seem plastered into the shots.
The quality of edits is unimaginative. Each scene takes minutes of footage and each action has a lot of inanimate people not acting. A big house, rich AF people with no fire or carbon monoxide alarms.
The most ridiculous statement made this week though.
Komolika, when looking at the fire ,” Let’s get out of here before we tan.”
Nevertheless, the real anticipation for next week – Anurag Basu. The handsome Parth Samthaan is back to shoot after his COVID bout and it seems everyone has finally returned to the sets. If the last two weeks were a stretch on moving the story along due to absence of the actors, maybe its time for the story to return to track.
The seeding of a parallomance between Mr. Bajaj’s daughter and Anurag Basu’s nephew is a pollination in the process in the background of the ongoing plots and subplots between the main protagonists.
We wait for the story to move on from here now that all actors are back.
PLUS : Same as last week. Use the amazing acting talent of the actors on board.
MINUS: Content.Momentum.
#REVIEW ———KASAUTI ZINDAGI KI- 2 WEEK JULY 27- AUG 1 @HOTSTARUS @STARPLUS
Since the actors seem to have shooting their scenes at home, a lot of patchy shots and ill fitting body doubles seem to have entered the story that was at last getting a little interesting.
Erica’s new Prerna look makes her look a bit weird with the colored lenses and the hairstyle discontinuity.
Having said that, we heard Anurag, played by Parth Samthaan, is back to shoot after recovering from COVID and the actors are all back on the sets.
Kudos for the team to keep the show going on despite the male lead being out of sorts, however the patchy edits and production definitely took the attention away from the plot to the appearances and edits.
The story did move, albeit slowly, this week. The revelation of Komolika’s intent to get to Prerna is now through the marriage of her brother with Prerna’s sister.
Their plan is to marry that poor girl by showing her how much Ronak is in love with her ( When in reality, he loathes her) only to torture her post-marriage. We know for sure that there are laws in India that would prevent such a scenario and the girl could always walk out of a tortuous association, but that’s not counted in the plot.
For some reason, women are supposed to be bound by an invisible, unbreakable desire to self-inflict harm upon themselves, if they suffer, they are great; but if they break free, they are immoral.
In any case, lets see if Mr Bajaj is able to stop the wedding in time and what happens when Anurag returns.
Plus: Great actors, even if not fully utilized.
Minus: Regressive content ideas must be banished from credible storytelling. I would again tell the writers of the show that content is everything. Please reimagine the story.
It cannot be doing what worked in serials of 30 years ago.
#REVIEW ———KASAUTI ZINDAGI KI- 2 WEEK JULY 19- JULY 24 @HOTSTARUS @STARPLUS
We had reported last week that the lead actor for the show had tested positive with the Corona Virus. Isn’t being positive this year the most negative thing to happen? Well, it has definitely effected the quality of the production which looks extremely patchily put together this week. The dubbing is low quality. You know scenes are patched together of people in different sets or areas. Prerna’s voice is very weird. In fact in some scenes, Erica Fernandez, who portrays Prerna, even looks different.
The story moves from Prerna threatening to destroy Anurag to Prerna starting the journey to destroy his dream of Basu City. Karan Patel, the new Mr, Bajaj is by her side as she starts plotting. Even though she shows that she has indeed moved on and hates the sight of Anurag, she realizes she still has feelings for him.
The battle between Prerna and Komolika gets real, while Anurag’s mother and sister plan to get Nivedita, Anurag’s sister hitched to the rich Mr. Bajaj as they feel his wealth can help them restore some self esteem. Komolika abuses them openly as she now controls all their businesses and money.
So the plot could have been executed a little bit better but lets just blame it on Corona for the time being.
Hopefully, the quality of the show’s production gets a better treatment soon and the cast recovers.
Erica, who has been a masses favorite after her “Kuch Rang Pyaar ke aisey bhi” deserves much more than a patchy story to show her skill at.
Hope that happens soon.
Meanwhile a little stormy attraction is brewing between the college going daughter of Mr. Bajaj and Anurag’s nephew. How circumstantial.
The week concluded with Prerna’s sister getting kidnapped by Komolika’s brother. When she is finally found, it seems she declares that she is deeply in love with him and wants to be with him. Quite a twist in the plot and a win for Komolika who has always wanted to have something to control Prerna with.
Plus : A great cast, known for their acting skills, look good and can make the story look good.
Minus: Story. Story. Story.
#REVIEW ———KASAUTI ZINDAGI KI- 2 WEEK JULY 13- JULY 17 @HOTSTARUS @STARPLUS
Now for a extremely successful, pathbreaking first installment of a story of lovers who find it difficult to overcome their circumstances to be together ( reasons being forces of nature, other villain’s, manipulating parents or sexy, psychopathic ex-wives), Part 2 has had several mind numbing sub-plots like an people blaming a woman for carrying someone else’s kid for many months without checking the kid’s DNA to establish the parentage, a perpetually pregnant woman who finally gives birth, only to have the baby kidnapped ( the baby was a smaller kid before the lockdown but due to age restrictions on kids who can be present at a set, I guess, older versions of the same age group have been inducted).
The post-covid version is a continuance of the plot, no Covid Story, just a continuation of the revenge plot by the spurned lover of Anurag Basu( played by handsome, Parth Samthaan)- Prerna Sharma ( the beautiful, talented Erica Fernandez), who thinks her ex-husband and love of her life has cheated her, while the love. Anurag is still yearning for her but has only pretended to cheat her to save Prerna’s own life from the clutches of an evil, yet sexy villain who is stupidly, emotionally vengeful, yet almost Machiavellian in character.
The villain Komolika, played by good looking actor, Aamna Sharif ( who has been quite successful in portrayal of a totally repulsive character on screen), is painful to watch. Her character is predictably indignant and infuriating in the same breath. In her avatar post COVID, she continues to either pander to or threaten to annihilate her nemesis, the love of the life of her only obsession, Anurag Basu; Prerna. She gets offended enough to wage wars of words, yet she does it for the sport of being in a power play. Pretty unhinged
A new Mr. Bajaj, the iconic sugar daddy character, played by newly inducted veteran actor Karan Patel, is deeply in love with Prerna and is legally married to her, seems to be a severely-well-attired character with a morose morbidity, yet a predominant fixation for Prerna.
Now having stated the state of affairs; the story progressed, pretty gradually the entire week that it was telecast. The only significant thing that happened with the characters was an accident where Anurag is hurt and Prerna saves him after he deliberately gives her the business deal terms she was looking for, at the expense of his own business interests.
The news that Parth Samthaan ( Anurag Basu) caught a mild case of COVID hit the sets in the middle of the week , yet I believe that since none of the other actors tested positive to the virus; the shoot is to resume sans Parth on Monday.
Plus: Very talented and good-looking protagonists – Both Parth and Erica have a wonderful chemistry on screen. They are good actors and now with Karan Patel, another good actor- they can make this show seem a lot more sensible.
Minus: Story. Meat on the Story. Logical engagement. And stickiness of audience that can believe that the story is plausible and not patchy. Komolika’s plan to break up Anurag and Prerna has loopholes that could have been worked around.
