What Is the Story About?
There’s an air of mystery around Yug’s death while Sanchit is still behind bars. Aira and Marcus finally bury the hatchet and are determined to take their relationship forward, despite their ‘mommy’ issues. Isha struggles to accept her orientation after a bitter fallout with Nirvan and Aira. Meanwhile, Tara goes missing and Isha’s life is in danger.
Performances?
Popular for his appearances in Mahabharata, Extraction and Crushed, Rudhraksh Jaiswal proves his capability of carrying a show on his shoulders. He handles the heaviness of the drama with adequate composure. His on-screen love interest – Nikeet Dhillon – struggles in comparison with the emotional beats but turns in an earnest performance otherwise.
Kamya Ahlawat is convincing in a challenging role, having to conceal her internal trauma in public. However, better depth in the characterisation could’ve enhanced its impact. Aditya Raj Arora, Yadnesh Kamulkar, Hridhay Powdel and others fit the bill in their brief roles while Gauri Pradhan Tejwani and Snehalata Tagde’s hammy portrayals are slightly hard to tolerate.
Aniruddh Dave, Ridhiema Tiwari don’t have much to do this season though Meena Naithani’s performance passes muster.
Analysis
Tujhpe Main Fida is a low-stakes version of Elite, set in an elite institution in small-town India, in the backdrop of a coal mining scam and a murder mystery – where high society students keep falling in and out of love, navigate their relationships and come to terms with their past. While the show remains a time-pass fare with all its trivialities, it takes itself a little too seriously for a major part.
The campus drama unfolds in Coletown, Jharkand – a town where everyone knows each other in and out, with all their dark secrets, while the rich do their best to preserve their stature. Much like its predecessor, the second season predominantly deals with the highs and lows in the lives of its pivotal characters Marcus and Aira and the roadblocks that threaten to pull them apart.
While the first season was more focused on establishing the various intricacies of its world and served as a vehicle to introduce its pivotal characters, the new instalment has the luxury of dealing with its inner turmoil on a deeper level. In addition to the drama surrounding the relationships, it shows how the characters pay a heavy price for their past and realise they’ve no control over it.
Marcus is committed to balancing his cricket career and love life with Aira, even if his mom feels otherwise. Aira’s tainted familial legacy continues to haunt her, while she takes good care of her schizophrenic mom. Aira employs every trick in the book to resist Marcus’s advances but they helplessly fall in love – all over again – until situations spiral out of their control.
In addition to Marcus and Aira, the show is equally centred around Isha, who’s stuck in a toxic relationship with Nirvan and is tired of masking her insecurities and struggles with a happy-go-lucky facade. Though there’s a pretence around the show’s solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community and the mentally challenged lot, the tone-deaf, insensitive treatment suggests otherwise.
The parents react hysterically (like retards?) to the conflicts in their wards’ lives – say Marcus’s mom, who makes a mountain out of a molehill transferring all her trauma to her son. It’s alright to portray intergenerational clashes but the creators have little interest in building a strong context to the drama and reduce most characters to one-note caricatures.
Tara (Aira’s mother) is poorly fleshed out to generate any sense of empathy. There’s so much talk about the supposed conspiracy around the Rajkishore family and the coal-mining scam, though proceedings are too flippant to warrant attention. The overblown finale, where Marcus and Aira’s relationship takes another drastic turn (spare us, we’re tired), doesn’t help its cause.
Thanks to the breezy screenplay, the Maan Singh Manku-directed show keeps ticking along smoothly despite the lack of any emotional depth or sensitivity in the material. Tujhpe Main Fida works best when it sticks to its campus backdrop where teenagers are lost in their internal squabbles, relationships and identity issues. As it raises the stakes, it falls apart like a house of cards.
Tujhpe Main Fida is high on opulence and easy on the eye – the sets are gorgeously mounted, the costumes are a visual feast, the men come with ripped, toned bodies and there’s green cover all around. If you have nothing good to watch this weekend, a one-time viewing wouldn’t hurt.
Music and Other Departments?
Sarthak Nakul’s score is lively and chirpy and the composer makes good use of the show’s dramatic setting and drives the story along with his music smoothly (peppered with Bollywood references). Rajiv Singh’s cinematography does justice to the tone and the mood of the story, ably helped by the production designer and the choice of costumes. The runtime, at four hours, is bearable, though the absence of a solid plot is a dampener.
Highlights?
Candy floss treatment, easy-on-the-eye appeal
Rudhraksh Jaiswal’s performance
Breezy narrative, good cinematography
Drawbacks?
Poorly established characters
Absence of solid drama
Highly exaggerated at times
Did I Enjoy It?
Only in parts
Will You Recommend It?
If you’re in the mood for an okayish teen drama
Tujhpe Main Fida Season 2 Series Review by Binged Bureau
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