Balaji is the craze of TV series. Anyone who watches television has seen his serials. Not only women, but often their husbands also see them and secretly enjoy them. Balaji launched his OTT platform, Alt Balaji, on April 16, 2017. We were promised groundbreaking material, which we haven’t seen in full since the test case. Fitrat is one of 60 original content series co-produced by ALTBalaji and ZEE5 in Hindi and is available on both platforms.
Krystle D’Souza plays the main character Tarini in Fitrat. Krystle was last seen in Belan Wali Bahu in Colors and she also won Best Actress in a Comedic Role (Gold Awards). Tarini has no mother and is raised by a loving father, Alok (Mohit Chauhan), whom she addresses by her first name. Despite her humble origins, she dreams of becoming super rich the easy way, by marrying a rich man!
Tarini moves to Delhi from Shimla to become a journalist and lives with her filthy rich best friend Amy (Anushka Ranjan, daughter of ITA founder Anu Ranjan). She is seen by Amy’s fiancée Veer (Aditya Seal, of Year 2 fame). When she sets her mind to something, she makes sure to get it! He leaves no stone unturned in winning her heart, and despite rejecting her advances, the hint goes unnoticed. In his twisted mind, she keeps rejecting him and putting him in precarious situations because she loves him too.
There are hilarious moments where Tarini tries to save Amy’s brother Bunty (Aru Krishnash) from his evil fiancée Mallika (Priyanka Bhatia). Bunty takes a liking to Tarini, while the latter is speechless when he says that all he cares about is her money. Tarini’s presence at her house worries Bunty and Amy’s mother, Janaki (Divya Sheth), who also plants a seed of doubt in Amy’s head. Tarini and her childhood friendship are shattered when Amy falls in love with her. A chance meeting with Arun (Aditya Lal), the head of a news channel, sets many things in motion and reveals the true faces hidden behind the masks.
wow how about:
The Shimla locations are stunning and provide much needed incentive to keep watching the series.
What’s Blah:
There are 4 songs in this series. When we are watching a series specially made for the web, we do not expect songs in it. Now, that’s where it took us.
Veer continues to impose himself physically and emotionally on Tarini, but she doesn’t sound the alarm. She just keeps asking him to back off. Tell me why she does this, when she clearly wasn’t working! She could have easily distanced herself from him or put a bikini right under her nose or, if that last comment upset feminists, just told her best friend Amy about it. We found it difficult to digest.
Tarini doesn’t tell her best friend about Veer’s progress, but she tells the whole world about the ‘scam’ she pulled. From our point of view, the impression that the OTT platform is giving is that it is not a question of physical aggression, everything else is fine. Since it is a web series, we would have liked to see some progressive content and messaging.
Post production could have been better. There is a scene where a press conference is taking place, and the background of the chroma screen is still there, with a white ribbon marked with an X.
Parting Shot:
Keep digestive pills handy while watching this one!
Cast & Crew:
Cast: Krystle D’Souza (Tarini), Vir (Aditya Seal), Amy (Anushka Ranjan), Janki (Divya Sheth), Aru Krishnash (Gaurav), Kaizaad Kotwal (Tekchand), Babla Kochhar (Suresh Shergill), Govind Pandey (OP Kapoor), Priyanka Bhatia (Mallika), Mohit Chauhan (Alok), Aditya Lal (Arun)
Concept: Ekta Kapoor
Creative Director (ALTBalaji): Baljit Singh Chaddha
Director: Santosh Singh
Executive Producer (ALTBalaji): Insiya Burmawala
Writers: Althea Kaushal, Anvita Dutt
Dialogues: Anvita Dutt, Eisha Chopra
Editor: Unnikrishnan P P
DOP: Anubhav Bansal
Executive Producer (DING Entertainment): Mittal Sangle
Creative Producer: Ari Sam
Producer: Tanveer Bookwala
Watch the trailer here: