Teenage years normally convey a raging volcano of complicated feelings, new aspirations, dilemmas, self-doubt, and rather more. And that is exactly what Prime Video’s newest unique sequence Dil Dosti Dilemma tries to faucet into. The sequence includes a younger woman referred to as Asmara (Anushka Sen) as its protagonist; a typical teenager from an uber-rich household, whose complete existence revolves round her greatest pals’ validation.
She wears modern garments, speaks vogue, loves to buy and celebration, and is embarrassed by any facet of her actuality which may not align with the rigorously crafted persona of a cultured woman that she has constructed for herself. She will get embarrassed by uncool items from her grandparents and can not seem to share her actual feelings in entrance of her equally pretentious pals.
When her mom realises that Asmara may need grown into an entitled, thankless grownup who has misplaced all respect for her roots, she decides to cancel her two-month-long journey to Canada and ship her to her grandmother’s home in a small city as a substitute, as a punishment.
What follows subsequent is a predictable sequence of occasions the place the spoilt woman has a tough time adjusting to the small-town life, solely to finish up loving it there. The present evokes tales that we have all heard and seen many instances. Do not be too shocked if it reminds you of the ethical tales of childhood, as a result of it’s equally sugary, if no more. The occasional display screen presence of Shruti Seth, enjoying Asmara’s mom within the sequence, whose performing abilities nonetheless appear to be caught in time, would possibly remind you of the favored 90s present Shararat, if you happen to had been an ardent fan like me.
Whereas the present makes an attempt to superficially painting complicated feelings that youngsters expertise, it barely provides off the style of actuality. Everybody is simply too loving, understanding, and accommodating – the sequence typically finally ends up feeling just like the Sooraj Barjatya model of coming of age. It is a world the place nothing as darkish as HBO’s Euphoria would possibly exist. On this Toyland model of the world, a youngster can simply grow to be a torchbearer of morality, and the adults not solely silently observe, but additionally take pleasure in frenzied celebration of the particular person. It is just like the present has been written by a youngster hell-bent on spreading goodness on the planet.
The present does attempt to contact upon teenage relationships when it reveals a boy attempting to govern Asmara’s greatest buddy Naina into considering that he likes her, solely to make use of her to get to her father, who’s a famend tennis coach. Despite the fact that he feigns curiosity in her for his ulterior motives and is an professional at gaslighting, the character continues to be handled in a saccharine method.
The one factor that stood out concerning the present was the honesty with which it makes an attempt to indicate the sense of self-doubt that seeds deep contained in the hearts of youngsters. It superbly captures that candy spot in adolescence the place innocence and sinfulness co-exist.
The sequence, nevertheless, fumbles the place it ought to indicate comparable care to its different characters, egregiously portraying Hindi audio system as uncool and outright silly. Vishakha Pandey’s character, for example, comes off as a loud idiot with zero frequent sense, simply because she is from a small city and blurts out incorrect English phrases. Equally, Arjun Berry’s character is regarded down upon simply because he has a wealthy Hindi vocabulary. He and his language are lampooned only for a number of laughs, none of which ever really feel earned.
In case you are on the lookout for one thing that treats its subject material with the seriousness and care it deserves, I’d advocate you skip this one. Nonetheless, if you’d like one thing operating within the background whilst you wrap up your pending assignments or different chores, you possibly can tune in to this no-brainer sequence — or maybe if you take care of a delusional tackle teenage utopia, the place fortunately ever after exists.