The story
Nand Kishor Tyagi (Ayushmaan Saxena) is a young school boy living in Meerut. His captivating smile and confidence earns him the reputation of the ‘most sought after lad’ at school. While at senior grade, he is smitten by the charms of the erotic world, finding it exceedingly hard to control his raging libido. He starts by hitting out at his classmate and rakhi sister, Priyanka (Rashmi Agdekar). Things begin to change when the new grammar teacher, Shano Madam (Swara Bhaskar), enters the scene. Shano’s charismatic ways sweep Nand off his feet and he soon obsessed with her. What he is about to discover about Shano Madam is beyond shocking.
The Review
In India, adult comedy equals as soft porn. Writers and directors go to the farthest extent of making a mockery out of any social situation concerning women. In a patriarchal society like India, women are simply looked down upon as sex objects, whose sole criteria is reduced to satiating the carnal desires of a man. Her opinions and social standing are conveniently discarded and relegated to the simple aspect of being ably equipped to keep a man happy.
The series goes all out to show how it is absolutely okay for a high school boy to hit out at his teacher. Even as the series progresses, one will find a very young girl (who is probably not even a decade old) showing off her rather seductive moves in front of a group of drunk men. Thankfully, she isn’t provocatively dressed.
And, the men are embarrassed to see her that way. Yet, the indirect conditioning involves that the little song and dance keep her man from going on a merry-go-round in lieu of searching for more enticing options.
The protagonists have made a tremendous effort at adding glam quotients with their craft, however, the way the plot is directed weakens the very essence of the plot and delivers viewers the unwarranted connotation of soft porn. The editing is far from crisp, and the direction is simply confused.
Saxena earns a serious fan following with his boyish grin and evolving teenage charm. He is oozing with confidence and is equipped with fitting bouts of energy to carry off the role. Swara Bhaskar has convincingly essayed the role of Shano. One can witness the effeminate version of Jekyll and Hyde take over as she transforms herself into an erotic diva.
The narrative is prominently discounted for the Amazon Prime standards. However, despite all the efforts made by writer Shantanu Srivastava this could have made for an interesting narrative if it were tweaked to incorporate social consciousness and judicious amounts of glam to flavour the series more amicably.
Name of the series: Rasbhari
Number of episodes: 8
Platform: Amazon Prime
Cast: Swara Bhaskar, Ayushmaan Saxena, Pradhuman Singh, and Rashmi Agdekar,
Director: Nikhil Bhat
Rating: 1/5
