Teenage years often convey a raging volcano of complicated feelings, new aspirations, dilemmas, self-doubt, and rather more. And that is exactly what Prime Video’s newest unique collection Dil Dosti Dilemma tries to faucet into. The collection includes a younger lady known as Asmara (Anushka Sen) as its protagonist; a typical teenager from an uber-rich household, whose total existence revolves round her greatest buddies’ validation.
She wears trendy garments, speaks vogue, loves to buy and occasion, and is embarrassed by any facet of her actuality that may not align with the fastidiously crafted persona of an aesthetic lady that she has constructed for herself. She will get embarrassed by uncool presents from her grandparents and can not seem to share her actual feelings in entrance of her equally pretentious buddies.
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 instances. Do not be too shocked 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 collection, whose appearing expertise nonetheless appear to be caught in time, would possibly remind you of the favored 90s present Shararat, in case you had been an ardent fan like me.
Whereas the present makes an attempt to superficially painting advanced feelings that youngsters expertise, it barely provides off the style of actuality. Everybody is simply too loving, understanding, and accommodating – the collection usually 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 would possibly exist. On this Toyland model of the world, a youngster can simply grow to be a torchbearer of morality, and the adults not solely silently observe, but in addition take pleasure in frenzied celebration of the individual. It is just like the present has been written by a youngster hell-bent on spreading goodness on the earth.
The present does attempt to contact upon teenage relationships when it exhibits a boy attempting to govern Asmara’s greatest buddy Naina into pondering that he likes her, solely to make use of her to get to her father, who’s a famend tennis coach. Though he feigns curiosity in her for his ulterior motives and is an knowledgeable at gaslighting, the character remains 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 superbly captures that candy spot in adolescence the place innocence and sinfulness co-exist.
The collection, nevertheless, 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, as an 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.
If you’re on the lookout for one thing that treats its subject material with the seriousness and care it deserves, I might advocate you skip this one. Nonetheless, in order for you one thing operating within the background when you wrap up your pending assignments or different chores, you’ll be able to tune in to this no-brainer collection — or maybe if you take care of a delusional tackle teenage utopia, the place fortunately ever after exists.