The headiness of first love and the small rebellions of adolescence are revisited in The Viral Fever’s web series Immature, which was released on MX Player in February.
The school-set show follows the travails of 16-year-old Dhruv, who faces hurdles big and small as he tries to get close to Chhavi, whom he has had on a crush on for years. His brothers-in-arms are his friends Kabir, who desperately wants to be a bad boy, and Susu, who is colourblind but doesn’t know it.
Immature was premiered in 2018 at the first edition of Canneseries , a festival for television programming. The series has been created by Sameer Saxena (who directed TVF’s Permanent Roomates and Yeh Meri Family). Prem Mistry is the director and Abhishek Yadav, Suprith Kundar and Nishaad Javeri are the writers. Omkar Kulkarni leads the cast as Dhruv. Rashmi Agdekar plays Chhavi and Chinmay Chandraunshuh and Visshesh Tiwari are Kabir and Susu.
Immature’s strong suit is its ability to tap into the elements that make adolescence ripe for dramatisation. This it does by looking at ordinary characters and trading glamour for a glimpse of school life that is far closer to reality – a world in which parents are the biggest obstacles to fun and freedom is made of bike rides with friends, clandestine conversations and sneaking out for a drink at a local bar.
The show follows a one-conflict-per-episode format that ties into Dhruv’s larger quest to befriend Chhavi. To stretch out this premise over five episodes, it adds in staged situations and eccentric characters that sometimes seem like derivatives of the dimwitted and rustic Purshottam from Permanent Roommates. These characters often get more screen time than they merit, but each episode also weaves in a few clever lines and guaranteed laughs.
The more fun moments stem from the chemistry between the three friends. Immature nails the endless catastrophising over small setbacks and worldview that’s both self-centred and self-deprecating.
TVF has mastered the art of making breezy, eminently watchable shows. Immature is like an instant noodles formula: quick, easy, enjoyable but ultimately transient.