Losing With Mediocre Performances, 'Pavitra Bhagya' Makes Up With a Strong Concept

In times, where any other new show coming in is either a supernatural rehash of the existing ones or another reality show, a good fiction show that belongs to the romantic drama genre is what is needed as a break.

Whether or not Ekta Kapoor's latest venture, Pavitra Bhagya starring Kunal Jaisingh, Aneri Vajani, Vaishnavi Prajapati and Abhishek Verma in lead roles fills that void? Let's find out.

Set in the streets of a fictional Shanti Vihar Colony in New Delhi, the story is about a docile, troubled but lovely girl Pranati (Aneri Vajani), who is currently in a dilemma to marry probably the best man in the world, his best friend Archit (Abhishek Verma), as she struggles with the remembrance of losing her child while she was born and at the same time, dreading the person she had the child with. Of course, the child isn't dead and is now relatively grown up and having her own fight to deal with escaping from a pathetic orphanage. And finally, the third part of the unlikely trio is a poster boy Casanova who also still feels for the only woman he ever loved. While the kid Jugnu's (Vaishnavi Prajapati) path does cross with her mother (Pranati) and father (Reyaansh) on different instances, the biggest twist will happen when all of them come together.

Pavitra Bhagya is not perfect and, in fact, at times falters immensely owing to patent characters that the makers and probably the audience never seem to get enough of. For instance, the evil to-be mother-in-law Sumitra (Divyajyotee Sharma) is literally the worst character that has been repeated in almost every daily soap ever. Not only is that character one-note but literally a rehash from what's been going on since the 2000s.

Apart from this, the show also suffers from loose ends where, as a viewer, you might be confused between the flashback and present-day scenes. Every scene in the present day that calls for a flashback is referred to again in a future scene. That's exactly how perplexed you might feel in some instances.

However, it the relatively novel storytelling in the show that saves it from being 'just-another-daily-soap'. When it comes to performances, Vajani is good as Pranati, her character barely gets to emote anything else apart from a frowned and sad face. That goes in tandem with her present-day situation but in the flashback scenes too, she seems to be losing out on being able to emote well. Jaisingh comes in the show in the second episode as a breath of fresh air where his Casanova character adds some much-needed humor and color to the storyline and while the actor isn't spot on with his scenes and acting, he is decent at best. It is indeed the kid Jugnu played by Prajapati that takes the adulation owing to her innocent yet firing portrayal of Jugnu, and she is truly fantastic.

For me, however, the true surprise package in the show was Abhishek Verma as Archit. Not only is the character of Archit literally the most eligible and perfect man any girl can dream to marry, Verma plays the role with amazing panache, maturity, and subtlety; even humorous at times. Given how we have only seen Verma in Yeh Hai Mohobbatein earlier, this supposedly recurring role which I consider to be almost a part of the leading cast might just be a big step in his career.

On the whole, Pavitra Bhagya, in spite of all the critical aspects we mentioned will fetch in the numbers. While we keep hoping every day for a show to be breaking the monotonous trend; Pavitra Bhagya is certainly not the show that will be doing that. Still, even in its run-off-the-mill and crowd-pleasing treatment, it at least has a relatively progressive and novel story to work with.

Rating - **1/2 (2.5/5)