Oops! Ab Kya? is a flippantly titled show about a life-altering error. In the Hindi adaptation of the American series Jane the Virgin – itself a remake of a Venezuelan telenovela – a young woman who has never had sex becomes pregnant because of a goof-up at her health clinic.
Mistakenly injected with her employer’s sperm, Roohi (Shweta Basu Prasad) deals with forced motherhood as well as the reactions of her family, boyfriend and the couple for whom the sample was originally intended. Roohi’s mother Paakhi (Sonali Kulkarni) didn’t marry her biological father, making the young woman reject the obvious solution of an abortion.
Roohi’s predicament also stems from her grandmother Subhadra (Apara Mehta). Never having heard of birth control or distrustful of it, Subhadra has advised Roohi to choose honour over a sex life.
One might have imagined a woman with a Victorian mindset to counsel her unattached granddaughter against keeping the baby. But a show has to be born too. Accordingly, Roohi is 27, still sleeps in the same bed as Paakhi, and has transformed her police officer boyfriend Omkar (Abhay Mahajan) into the model of abstinence.
Over eight episodes, directors Prem Mistry and Debatma Mandal follow Roohi as well as the other characters in her orbit. Hotelier Samar (Aashim Gulati) and his grasping wife Alisha (Amy Aela) – the ones who had hoped to start a family – are having trouble staying together. Omkar, when not pining for or arguing with Roohi, is chasing a mysterious drug smuggler. Roohi is also finding it tough to resist the wealthy and dishy Samar.
Paakhi, who has sacrificed her best years for her daughter, grapples with the wisdom of her decisions. Television star Vanraj (Jaaved Jafferi) comes to play an important role in Roohi’s family. Through Vanraj, Oops! Ab Kya? satirises the storytelling conventions of television soaps while closely adhering to the family-friendly, conservative ethos of that universe.
The original Venezuelan show and its American remake were set in cultures in which abortion and contraception were contentious matters. The queasiness about sex before marriage and allowing women to control their bodies and lives is clearly universal. The Venezuelan telenovela has been remade in several languages, including previously in Hindi as Ek Ladki Anjaani Si.
Oops! Ab Kya? rolls out ample distractions from its archaic views on sex. The makers deliver an engaging account of people trying to do the right thing for themselves and others.
Like a television serial in the pre-streaming era but without the commercial breaks, Oops! Ab Kya? is bursting with shameless coincidences and endless contrivances aimed at extending Roohi’s dilemma. The cliffhanger ending suggests that we aren’t done with Roohi, her upcoming issue, and her other issues.
Sharp situational comedy and wonderful performances elevate an overly busy plot stacked with flashbacks to Roohi’s childhood and quite a few forgettable minor characters. Faint-hearted viewers might tire of how Samar’s hotel is the venue for just about every activity, how slow Omkar is, how Roohi simply can’t stop dithering.
Shweta Basu Prasad solidly leads a pack of top-form actors, managing to convert Roohi’s indecisions into bold personal statements. Basu Prasad’s depth of feeling makes Roohi appear to be much more than a victim of her biological destiny.
The track between Paakhi and Vanraj is the sweetest, allowing Sonali Kulkarni and Jaaved Jafferi to send out reminders of their comic timing and emotional depth. Aashim Gulati is finely cast as a dashing hero out of a Mills & Boon paperback. Even Apara Mehta behaves, making Subhadra a sweet-natured matriarch rather than the ogre she could have been.
