Woh Apna Sa Review: Yaaaawn!! A Sleep Inducing First Episode

Show Title: Woh Apna Sa

Channel: Zee TV

Timings: Monday to Friday 10 pm

Woh Apna Sa is the latest show on Zee TV that replaces it previous daily soap Yeh Vada Raha. The show has Ridhi Dogra, Ssudeep Sahir and Disha Parmar in leading roles. The show is supposedly inspired by the Hindi movie We Are Family. Read the first episode written update and my first impression of this daily drama.

 

Woh Apna Sa (2017)

Episode 1

There is a wedding at the Jindal house and Adi welcomes his brother Raj and his bride by opening the car door. Sharda and her friends are chitchatting when one of her friends asks her about the pooja thali (traditional plate used for pooja) that is used to welcome the newlywed couple. Sharda tells them that her daughter-in-law Nisha will be preparing that to which the women look surprised and say that nowadays these modern daughters-in-law know nothing of traditions. Sharda replies that her even though her daughter-in-law Nisha is modern she is well-versed with all the traditional rituals. Just then Nisha walks upto them and asks Sharda to check if the thali prepared by her is fine. Sharda tells her to show the thali to her friend who knows more about it. The friend looks at the thali and points out that one thing is missing to which Nisha says that the thing she is talking about is added only after the bride and groom enter the house. The women feel surprised by her knowledge and look impressed by her.

The bride and groom arrive at the doorstep and the family gathers to welcome them. The male head of the family (his name hasn’t been revealed yet so let’s call him Kakusa for now) Kakusa, tells everyone that Nisha and Adi will do the traditional aarti welcoming the newlywed couple. Adi and Nisha look indecisive as normally it is the older couple in the family who do the aarti as per tradition. Kakusa tells them that “tum iss nayi peedi ke Shiv aur Parvati ho. Tumhare aashirwad se ye pura rishta bahut subh hoga” (You two are the new age Lord Shiva and Parvati and your blessings will bring good luck) (Did he just say that. I cringed so hard, I now have wrinkles on my face. Yeh serial waale kabhi nahi sudhrenge. I hate you television for making us hear such crap.) Nisha and Adi hold the thaali together and do the aarti welcoming the newlyweds into the house.

Nisha tells the new bride, Neha to drop the kalash (urn) with her foot and make a traditional entry into the house. Neha pushes the urn with her left foot and the women standing around them look displeased and a woman loudly exclaims that it is inauspicious to kick the urn with the left foot. Adi tells the woman had using your left foot been really unlucky, people would have never moved with the fear of having something bad happen to them. (Waah! Kya situation sambhala hain ‘nayi peedi’ ne)   

The bride and groom enter the house and Kakusa tells them to first seek Bhaisa’s (elder brother and Adi’s dad) blessing. And they realise that Bhaisa is nowhere to be seen. Adi and Nisha go around looking for Bhaisa and Adi screams at Nisha for not keeping an eye on his dad. Adi and Raj leave in separate cars to look out for his dad.

A man is being barked at and jumped on by dogs near a garbage bin. A woman passing by sees the man being scared of the dogs. Despite being afraid of dogs she intervenes, shoos the dogs away, and helps the man who by then is quivering behind the garbage bin.

Adi is frantically looking for his father and curses himself for trusting Nisha with his dad. The woman offers her hand to the elderly man asking him to come out of hiding as the dogs have left and he needn’t be frightened anymore. The man takes her hand and as he rises we see Adi’s car pass the lane but not notice his father behind the garbage bin. The woman introduces herself as Jhanvi and asks the man his name but he looks too perplexed to answer. She asks him for his address so she can drop him home but the man starts crying on hearing her question. She notices the card in his kurta’s pocket and calls on that phone number. She speaks to Nisha and tells her that Mr. Chandresh Jindal is with her at Dadar’s Shivaji park and asks someone to come and take him as he looks extremely scared. Nisha tells her she got the wrong number and hangs up.

Nisha pretends to be worried for Adi’s dad and blames herself for being irresponsible. Sharda consoles her saying that it isn’t her fault and the Almighty will take care of things. Nisha tells Sharda that she is too worried for her father-in-law and that she will go look for him herself. She takes her two daughters with her.

Jhanvi’s mother calls her and scolds her for not being home on time. She tells her to have something as she must be terribly hungry by now. Jhanvi looks over the old man and notices him looking at empty chips wrappers on the road.

Nisha is with her daughters at a restaurant eating Chinese food and tells them not to divulge about their secret dinner to anybody.

Jhanvi offers the old man a pack of biscuits which he refuses. He feels distracted by the jingling bracelet on her hand. She hands him her bracelet and feeds him a biscuit like mothers do to little children.

As Nisha and her daughters have dinner at the restaurant her daughter notices her grandfather’s image in the news showing a list of missing people. The news reporter states that the Chandresh Jindal suffers from Alzheimers and is 64 years old.

A cab drives in the Jindal house and Jhanvi steps out with the old man. She tells him that it is his house and they both walk inside the house. Nisha drives in behind Jhanvi’s cab and sees Jhanvi take Adi’s dad inside the house. Nisha rushes behind her and thanks Jhanvi for bringing him home. She offers Jhanvi some money but she politely refuses and takes her leave. Adi sees Jhanvi from behind and tries to approach her.

 

 

First Episode First Impression

Woh Apna Sa is supposed to be inspired from the Hindi movie ‘We Are Family’ which was based on the English movie ‘Stepmom’. We do have two heroines and one hero but the show didn’t look that inspired from the movie. I suppose they must’ve used just the main plot and will take it the silly typical TV serial way. The first episode introduced the three central characters and gave a glimpse of their personalities. Though Nisha was shown to be selfish and inconsiderate in the first episode I don’t think that negativity will last long as actress Riddhi Dogra has said in an interview that her character isn’t out and out negative but has grey shades to it. Well, she was shown to be a good mother so I can give her that.

 

What looked nice?

Honestly, I did not like the first episode at all. The good girl is selfless and helps people in need. I mean c’mon! Who really does what Jhanvi did in the show? With the kind of crime rate we have in the city why would a young girl help a man, who looks slightly unstable, at that hour of the night? This doesn’t happen and we all know that. But these show makers keep showing impractical solutions to scenarios which are not relatable at all. I pity people who have no option but to watch such serials. God help them! But the producers cannot be blamed entirely because every week when I write the BARC ratings I realise the kind of shit viewers like watching on TV and where there is demand there will be supply. Unless viewers stop watching crap on TV, producers will never stop making them. 

 

What did not look nice?

Sorry to say but everything in the show looked….meh.

 

 

Woh Apna Sa disappointed me big time as I thought it could be something different but no…it’s like any other ridiculous daily drama on TV. I would rather watch the night sky than watch this pakao (boring) TV serial.

 

 

Image Courtesy