And, it’s total nostalgia.
Show: Savitri Devi College & Hospital
Cast – Swarda Thigale, Varun Kapoor, Mohan Kapur, Shilpa Shirodkar
Produced By – Rashmi Sharma Telefilms
Genre – Romance, Drama (Revenge)
After having witnessed some of the most iconic hospital drama shows in the past, (Sanjivani, Dill Mill Gaye), Colors’ show ‘Savitri Devi College & Hospital’ did come across as nostalgia. We sure have been missing these shows from the past and from the looks of this one, we might miss them a little less.
With faces like Varun Kapoor and newbie, Swarda we definitely do have high expectations. Here we analyse and critique on the show’s impact, presentation and how it seems to shape up.
The Story
The story starts right in front of ‘Savitri Devi College & Hospital’ with a voice over in the background talking about the history and the present day. We are introduced to the entire cast of the show in the most melodramatic way, starting off with the founder of the college and hospital, Anand Malhotra (Mohan Kapur) and Jaya Mishra (Shilpa Shirodkar), followed by Sanchi (Swarda Thigale) Mishra.
Cut to, we are introduced to Sanchi’s buddies from her MBBS class, Pragya and Isha. Throughout the first episode, what we do realize is the enmity between Jaya and Anand, the conflict within Anand’s family over his second marriage and Jaya’s clear motive of revenge.
Post the drama, begins Sanchi’s struggle to choose – whether she wants to face the truth of her name being scrapped by Anand, for obvious reasons or to take over the name of Sanchi Agarwal and live her life with a lie. She, however, chooses the latter and what follows is a couple of hurdles and her inner conscience making her feel guilty.
Just like we would have thought, Sanchi and Veer (Varun Kapoor) have a bad start where the latter tries to prank the former and ends up with a slap on his face. Their second meeting was no less of a funny one.
On the occasion of the college and hospital completing 15 years of a successful run, there’s a party at Anand Malhotra’s house, which turns out to be a mix of father – son fights, the trio of Sanchi, Pragya and Isha getting into trouble and Jaya reaching the house.
Next up continues the planning and plotting by Priya and Veer’s stepmother, Gayatri while the two try to keep their happiness intact in each other’s company. Sanchi’s maasi, (maternal aunt) reaches the hospital and discovers that Sanchi’s name is nowhere to be found. And then begins the circle of lies to her and Jaya.
And the mystery behind why are the Malhotra brothers petrified at the very mention of Jaya Mishra continues into the next episode.
The Good
For the first week of it’s run and we saw some major high points in the show. Despite being a one hour (45 minutes of runtime) show, ‘Savitri Devi College & Hospital’ manages to keep the viewers hooked to watching it, always ending the episode at a point where the viewers would be left with a want to know what happens next.
Though ideally the show is supposed to be a revenge drama, it has glimpses of all the emotions and the various relationships. It beautifully encompasses all the aspects of a daily soap in a unique manner.
The Not So Good
Blame the loopholes in the script, all the characters are shown to be of an extreme nature (as of now at least). What’s portrayed is a not so real representation of what we would have seen otherwise.
There might be too many parallel stories running together which is justified given its one hour schedule but it might get difficult to cope up with for it is likely to get all messed up.
The Performances
Varun Kapoor as Veer couldn’t have been a better choice. While we have seen him in a youth based college show on Channel V earlier, his current character is a total shift from his role in ‘Swaragini’. Despite not being even close to his on-screen character, we liked how he totally got into Veer’s skin.
Swarda Thigale as Sanchi Mishra is convincing and yet a little weak at certain points. And that would be due to a weak script and her loose acting at certain places. However, for a debut, we are sure there’s a lot more to come.
Mohan Kapur as Anand Malhotra is hands down the perfect choice and he has done total justice as well. The kind of mix needed for the role is what Mohan has managed to weave really well.
Shilpa Shirodkar as Jaya Mishra is yet another fit for the role. The staunch and self-made woman that she has been playing is the best part about her character, and well, she’s pulled it off well.
The Verdict
The first week into the show and we know so much about it already. While the mystery factor has been maintained throughout (without the show turning draggy), we hope that’s how it remains for a major run time of the show. There were too many high points as we witnessed, and if that’s how the show continues to be, it’ll sure turn out to be another iconic hospital drama.
Rating: ***1/2(3.5/5)
So we are saying, the one hour you spend on the show will sure be worth it.