Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai - The Television Storytelling Marvel ruined by the Webseries

Okay so let me get one thing straight first, I don't hate the show and I still have my hopes on for the next season of the web series, in case there is any. Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai was a TV show which not only broke the monotony but was also a comedy show which had an actual plot. While other comedy shows rely on situational antics, Sarabhai was largely dependent on it's characters. Like Dushyant would say, Let me explain!

The fact that Rosesh is a mad poet and makes atrocious poems is not funny in itself, it can actually be an irritating phenomenon. But it's the way Rosesh tells his crappy poems with all his heart in it is what makes it funny, people laugh not only on his poems but his innocence which makes him believe that they are actually good. Maya's hatred for Monisha is not outright funny, but the way Maya controls her hatred for maintaining her dignity and class is what is funny. Monisha's messy behavior and the middle class antics are not funny on their own, they are funny only when she has a hidden agenda or a problem of her own which she is trying to solve. And that is exactly the reason why we don't remember the story of any of the episodes much, but we do remember what Maya said and how Indravadan reacted, that's the magic of a superlative comedy.

 

The web series that failed to entertain like the TV show

While we all loved the TV show and have re-watched it again and again, the web series couldn't live up to the expectations. Reason? Well after contemplating a lot and as a writer trying to find out what went wrong and where, I can only pin point on one thing; the storytelling. While the TV show focused on the characters, the web series focuses on the story, and story in a comedy is unfortunately never the crux. The addition of the new character, Monisha and Sahil's son could have been an awesome extension to the madness but it ended up becoming so forced that the child started getting a bit irritating as the series progressed. Indravadan was totally wasted in the web series and to my surprise Maya and Monisha have very very little screen time where they are together. The two characters of the show who are known to be loggerheads and generate laughter were kept away most of the time. And in an attempt to pump up the grandeur of the show they shot a lot in the outdoor which invited sloppy VFX and bad production values to seep in, again ruining the aesthetics of the show.

 I don't know if the makers are reading this, but if they are and if there is a Season 2, I would request them to focus on the characters like they earlier did and not on the gimmicks. Because like Maya would say, Gimmicks are so categorically down market !