The kindest thing that can be said about this 9-episode homage to Rajshri Productions’ sanskari series is that it works better than the last time Sooraj Barjatya tried to keep with the times in Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon. Tonally and in terms of updating the typical joint family, creaky limbs, and all, Bade Naam Karenge on SonyLIV gets it right, at least some of the time.
Sadly, too much playing time spoils the broth… or shall I say the vrat?
Sooraj Barjatya introduces himself as the ‘showrunner’ of SonyLIV’s marathon series. Firstly, the show doesn’t run; it crawls. This is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to a Sooraj Barjatya presentation: the characters take their time to get to the point. They have so much to do besides dealing with the central drama.
As is the case in most Barjatyawala presentations, there is much eating, singing, bantering, and, yes, pristine romancing—let’s not forget that. Like Shahid Kapoor and Amrita Rao in Vivah, Rishab (Ritik Ghanshani) and Surbhi (Ayesha Kaduskar) in this series are engaged to marry. Large chunks of the series show the bashful couple in coy courtship postures.
Lest the series feels antediluvian, the series’ co-writers S Manasvi and Vidit Tripathi bring in a tadka in the tale. Surbhi and Rishab share a secret: during the COVID-19 epidemic, Surbhi had to spend four nights in Rishab’s apartment. In separate rooms, of course.
The way the earth-shattering secret about the couple’s Covid time rendezvous comes out in the open demonstrates some woefully wobbly writing.
Rest assured, the Barjatya beliefs and their taut tenets remain unshaken: the couple did not…you know…do anything while in enforced quarantine. As pure as the Ganga, Rishab and Surabhi’s families go into a collective shock when the big secret is out.
Errr, isn’t it enough that the two love birds assure their parents that their chastity is intact? So what is the big fuss about? Scratch the surface of this Barjatya-gone-progressive series, and it is as crippling in its conservatism as anything that the sanskari banner has done before.
The sweetening of rigid conservative guidelines—the boy’s family is in the mithai business—doesn’t take away from the sting. The characters in Barjatyas’ series, young or old, are atrophied by customs and traditions. The concept of pre-marital sex is alien to Barjatyas’ characters. The potential scandal of the engaged couple having LIVED TOGETHER in the same apartment in Mumbai is where the serial gleans its potential drama.
Take it as you wish. Bada Naam Karenge is a languorously paced, prolonged series where the characters have enough space and time to grow. But nothing moves. The series remains insistently inured in its traditionalism. The world has moved on. The Barjatyas’ world remains immovable. And perhaps therein lies its charm. The actors who are part of this world know exactly what they are getting into. Kanwaljeet, for example, who was a toxic patriarch in this week’s other release, Mrs, is a benign sanskari figurehead of a family that lives together, weeps, and laughs together.
In brief happiness or grief Hum Saath Saath Hain.
