Teenage years normally deliver a raging volcano of complicated feelings, new aspirations, dilemmas, self-doubt, and way more. And that is exactly what Prime Video’s newest authentic sequence Dil Dosti Dilemma tries to faucet into. The sequence encompasses a younger lady referred to as Asmara (Anushka Sen) as its protagonist; a typical teenager from an uber-rich household, whose whole existence revolves round her finest pals’ validation.
She wears trendy garments, speaks vogue, loves to buy and celebration, and is embarrassed by any facet of her actuality that may not align with the fastidiously crafted persona of a cultured lady that she has constructed for herself. She will get embarrassed by uncool items from her grandparents and can not seem to share her actual feelings in entrance of her equally pretentious pals.
When her mom realises that Asmara might need grown into an entitled, thankless grownup who has misplaced all respect for her roots, she decides to cancel her two-month-long journey to Canada and ship her to her grandmother’s home in a small city as an alternative, as a punishment.
What follows subsequent is a predictable sequence of occasions the place the spoilt lady has a tough time adjusting to the small-town life, solely to finish up loving it there. The present evokes tales that we have all heard and seen many occasions. Do not be too stunned if it reminds you of the ethical tales of childhood, as a result of it’s equally sugary, if no more. The occasional display presence of Shruti Seth, enjoying Asmara’s mom within the sequence, whose appearing expertise nonetheless appear to be caught in time, may remind you of the favored 90s present Shararat, in the event you had been an ardent fan like me.
Whereas the present makes an attempt to superficially painting complicated feelings that youngsters expertise, it barely offers off the style of actuality. Everybody is simply too loving, understanding, and accommodating – the sequence typically finally ends up feeling just like the Sooraj Barjatya model of coming of age. It is a world the place nothing as darkish as HBO’s Euphoria may exist. On this Toyland model of the world, a young person can simply turn out to be a torchbearer of morality, and the adults not solely silently observe, but additionally bask in frenzied celebration of the particular person. It is just like the present has been written by a young person hell-bent on spreading goodness on this planet.
The present does attempt to contact upon teenage relationships when it exhibits a boy attempting to control Asmara’s finest buddy Naina into considering that he likes her, solely to make use of her to get to her father, who’s a famend tennis coach. Regardless that he feigns curiosity in her for his ulterior motives and is an professional at gaslighting, the character continues to be handled in a saccharine method.
The one factor that stood out concerning the present was the honesty with which it makes an attempt to point out the sense of self-doubt that seeds deep contained in the hearts of youngsters. It fantastically captures that candy spot in adolescence the place innocence and sinfulness co-exist.
The sequence, nonetheless, fumbles the place it ought to point out related care to its different characters, egregiously portraying Hindi audio system as uncool and outright silly. Vishakha Pandey’s character, for example, comes off as a loud idiot with zero frequent sense, simply because she is from a small city and blurts out incorrect English phrases. Equally, Arjun Berry’s character is regarded down upon simply because he has a wealthy Hindi vocabulary. He and his language are lampooned only for just a few laughs, none of which ever really feel earned.
In case you are in search of one thing that treats its material with the seriousness and care it deserves, I’d advocate you skip this one. Nonetheless, if you need one thing operating within the background whilst you wrap up your pending assignments or different chores, you may tune in to this no-brainer sequence — or maybe if you take care of a delusional tackle teenage utopia, the place fortunately ever after exists.