A bubbly, airy and occasionally moving coming of age yarn
Growing up and tiding over teenage angst is grist for the mill of a young adult drama. A certain degree of predictability is inevitable in a style that has its own established rules Dil dosti dilemmaDirected by Debbie Rao (Pushpavalli) and adapted from Andalib Wajid’s 2016 book, Summer in Asmara, successfully skirts around most of them.
The story contains larger themes that have resonance outside of the world the show is located in Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, the series is a bubbly, breezy and occasionally moving coming-of-age yarn that also addresses intergenerational, class and cultural divides.
Apart from important performances by Tanvi Azmi, Anushka Sen and Kush Jotwani, Dil dosti dilemma It thrives on simple and relevant ideas about the clash of tradition and modernity and the importance of balancing heritage with fastidious models of urban redevelopment driven by greed.
The seven-episode series, with a lighter touch, questions this point. It adds significant layers to a plot that revolves around teenagers dealing with friends, family and romantic partners, and the emotional upheaval that results from setbacks and forced course corrections. Their frustrations are caused by their own indiscretions as much as by the actions and decisions of adults.
Residents of a middle-class Muslim neighborhood in Bengaluru face the threat of displacement when a redevelopment plan is drawn up without their consent. Builders are ready to scour the neighborhood with their demolition teams. Money has changed hands and some shops and houses have already been leveled. Those still standing are weeks away from meeting the same fate.
The young protagonist, a daughter of a swankier, more privileged part of town, and her two friends jump into the fray when they realize how high the stakes are. As the show reaches its climax, the battle gains heightened gravity and urgency as the three young men learn to break out of their cushy cloisters of class privilege.
Written by Anuradha Tiwari, Bugs Bhargava Krishna, Raghav Dutta and Manjiri Vijay Pupala (Seema Mahapatra and Jahanara Bhargava serving as creative producers), Dil Dosti dilemma revolves around a rich fun-loving girl, Asmara (Anushka Sen), who moves towards her grandmother’s orthodox world.
Asmara’s planned visit to Canada is interrupted by her mother Arshia (Shruti Seth) as punishment for her indiscretions. Instead he is sent to Tibbri Road by his Nani (Tanvi Azmi) and Nana (Shishir Sharma).
Farida (Tanvi Azmi), the grandmother, lives in a conservative and neglected urban ward where the grind of daily existence – lack of potable water, erratic electricity supply and nosy neighbors a constant nuisance – towers over everything else.
Asmara, who sports shorts/distressed jeans and crop tops, clearly doesn’t belong here even though she was born here. Give him a chance to fit into our world, his ever-cheerful Nana advises his often impatient wife. That’s easier said than done across the gulf that separates Asmara and her grandmother.
The weeks Asmara spends on Tibri Road become a life-changing adventure with ups and downs, showdowns and misunderstandings, lies and discoveries. He makes new friends and even starts an unlikely romance while getting some help from his new surroundings, if only there could be more to life than Dil and Dosti.
Dil dosti dilemma Unprecedented but powerfully effective in portraying the two poles represented by the protagonist and her grandmother, who loves to mislead the girl but opposes the adolescent’s delusional lifestyle.
Three generations of women—mothers, daughters, and granddaughters—now live on opposite sides of the class divide. Thanks to the wealth and prosperity that Asmara has become, Tibbri Road is a world apart from Ridley Road.
Dil dosti dilemma Also about Asmara’s two friends, Naina (Revathi Pillai) and Tania (Elisha Mayor), who are just as excited about her move to Canada as she is. So, when the trip doesn’t materialize, Asmara impulsively lies to her friends and pretends she’s in Toronto.
Dear Naina is in love but in two minds about the boy in her life. Cruel Tania has to deal with the increasingly frosty relationship between her lawyer-mother (Dilnaz Irani) and Adman-father (Mahesh Thakur), which, she suspects, is the result of her father’s extramarital fling with the creative director (Samvedna). Suwalka) who owns the firm.
Asmara, even in the suddenly foreign environment she stumbles into, forms an unlikely friendship with Rukhsana (Vishakha Pandey), dismissed by her friends as “that clingy girl”, and develops a relationship with the latter’s gentleness. -The polite brother, Farzaan (Kush Jotwani).
Rukhsana and Farzan are neighbors of Nani. Their grandmother, Akhtar Begum (Suhasini Muloy), a rebellious and ultra-conservative woman never misses an opportunity to express her hatred for the rebellious Asmara.
The object of Naina’s affection is a boy who trains under her father (Priyanshu Chatterjee), known as India’s best tennis coach. Rukhsana loves Suhail (Hritvik Ghansani), a tenant whose passion for music prevents him from joining her father’s law firm.
And Tanya gets into a huge entanglement with an innocent, pure Hindi-spouting advertising intern, Dhruv (Arjun Berry), a small-town guy, whom she exploits for her own benefit and even develops feelings for.
The girls sometimes chirp too much but their brushes with trouble – everything from serious parenting issues to temporary longings that verge on heartbreaking and unhappy endings.
Dil Dosti Dilem Saves his best for last. It rises on a rousing, raucous and exciting note, with real-life Dakhni rap exponent Pasha Bhai appearing in a “Live Aid-like concert” and belting out a hip-hop number that not only riffs on bulldozers and the politics of sustainable development but freedom and Celebrating diversity.
The air of strong vengeance that takes up the final act is tempered with a few revelations that open up the series and keep alive the possibility of a new season.
Dil dosti dilemma People with a gallery of believable people with the ability to draw us into their many worlds. An extension of Asmara, Naina, Tanya and Rukhsana’s story is definitely in order – and welcome.
The characters and actors – including Vishakha Pandey as the girl whose rebellion is as essential as it is gentle – make a strong enough impression to merit another important chapter.
Full of warmth and vitality, Dil Dosti dilemma Shows a world and a vision of inclusion that is worth fighting for and preserving
