Even before its blockbuster Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994) altered the course of mainstream Hindi cinema, the Barjatya clan’s Rajshri Productions has been known for family-friendly films extolling traditional Indian values. Rajshri’s first streaming show Bada Naam Karenge, with Sooraj R Barjatya as showrunner and Palash Vaswani as director, was bound to stick to the same template.
However, Bada Naam Karenge has some progressive elements built in, possibly to pre-empt criticism about the company’s tendency to be sanskari in an old-fashioned way, even while songs from old Rajshri hits punctuate the soundtrack.
Over the last few years, Hindi films have been set in small towns of north and central India, and have picked up issues that affect today’s generation. Bada Naam Karenge, which is out on Sony LIV¸ goes down the same path, but a more wholesome manner.
Barjatya and writers S Manasvi and Vidit Tripathi concede that modernity has reached tier-3 cities – there are gleaming cars, smooth roads, swishy shops, a windmill twirling in the distance – but at heart, people are still conservative. Marriages are arranged within the same caste. The daughter-in-law will be absorbed into the joint family structure, and the whole clan will defer to the patriarch. The social and domestic status quo will not be toppled.
Ratlam-based Anand Rathi (Kanwaljeet Singh) is such a patriarch, who decides how his sweet-making business is to be run, and whom recently graduated MBA nephew Rishabh (Ritik Ghanshani) will marry. The entire family – Anand’s wife (Alka Amin), Rishabh’s parents (Rajesh Jais, Chaitrali Lokesh), cousin, sister-in-law and nephew – goes to see Ujjain resident Surbhi (Ayesha Kaduskar), who is accompanied by her parents (Jameel Khan, Deepika Amin), brother and sister-in-law.
Surbhi’s family is not as well off as Rishab’s, but they are more open-minded. For Rathi, the main criterion is whether Surbhi will fit into his palatial home. Surbhi’s brother (Gyanendra Tripathi) is wary because Rathi had almost ostracised his sister (Anjana Sukhani) for daring to fall in love with a man not approved by him and forced her to marry Rajesh (Rajesh Tailang), who always reminds them of the favour he did to save the Rathi reputation.
Rishabh and Surbhi have a previous shared history, but they pretend they do not know each other. This harmless deception blows up to crisis-like proportions over nine episodes. Much of the series is also taken up by family gatherings as well as preparations for the nuptials.
The point the show makes, after much drama, is that the older generation should respect the younger generation if they expect to be respected in turn, and that love rather than fear should be the binding force. However, the family unit must remain sacrosanct – at no point does Rishabh decide to break away. Rishab wants to gain experience with a successful company – streaming star Jitendra Kumar makes a guest appearance as the boss of a unicorn – and then run the family business.
To the show’s credit, the inevitability of change is explored without painting either generation in villainous colours. Rathi is not a nasty brute, Rishabh is no brat, and respect for women is emphasised. Although Rishab’s female relatives look docile, they are not in ghoonghat.
Ritik Ghanshani and Ayesha Kaduskar make for a charming pair and have a chemistry that works for the show. Seasoned actors like Kanwaljeet Singh, Alka Amin and Jameel Khan offer adequate support.
Bada Naam Karenge reaches out to the viewership that once followed television’s saas-bahu serials and grew out of the trend, but are not totally comfortable with the violence and profanity of current streaming content. Like the Indo-West fusion outfits of the young women in the show, Bada Naam Karenge finds its comfort zone in a cautious liberalism.
