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Khichdi banks on shades of grey to keep the laughter riot going
Unlike its sister soaps, this UTV production is not about black and white characters, but shades of grey
At the recently held STAR Parivaar Awards, Supriya Pathak Kapoor who plays Hansa Parekh in the sitcom Khichdi, while collecting her trophy remarked that the concept of the show was unique.
A close look at the sitcom will show how right she was. Unlike the black and while portrayal of characters dominating prime time television, STAR Plus' Khichdi, telecast at 8.00 pm on Tuesdays, revels in the foibles of the Parekh family. Here is a bunch of people who would love to live apart but for the dictates of patriarch Tulsidas Parekh. His son Praful Parekh is a cashier in a departmental store, trustworthy but undynamic, who suffers from a bad bout of inferiority complex. His wife Hansa is a dimwit with a penchant for gajras that perpetually adorn her hair, while daughter Chakki is slow on the take but loving at the same time.
Hansa's sister-in-law Jayshree is a widow, prefers living life to the fullest and has an equally restless son Jackie. Her genial nature notwithstanding, she is unable to reconcile herself to the death of her husband Bharat, the second son of Tulsidas, who commits suicide.
Sanjay, the youngest son of Tulsidas, is brash, extravagant and rude, who would love to settle down comfortably with a woman sporting a modern outlook. He is well educated, loves action movies, cricket and CNN. His twin sisters Heera and Meera have nothing in common, with the former obsessed with her complexion while the latter behaves like a tuition teacher.
With the show abounding in quirky characters, the element of comedy is introduced in the course of their interactions with each other as well as with the outside world. Adam's Family, a hugely popular sitcom in the West, banked on a similar approach. The show, which dwelled on a very strange family residing in a ghostly haven, drew on the macabre to add an element of fun to the show.
On the ratings chart, Khichdi has had a decent run with a TVR score of 6.8 for the week of August 24-30, 2003. The week before, that is, August 17-23, 2003, its score was 5.3. To flashback in time, the show averaged a score of 4.8 in the first week of June while in July, precisely, July 6-12, the show stood at 5.5. Between May 4-10, Khichdi netted a score of 4.8 while in the week of April 6-12, the TVR stood at 4.6.
With the audience lapping up the show at least for now, it is to be seen how long the idiosyncratic Parekh family can keep viewers glued to their TV sets. © 2003 agencyfaqs!