MX Player's Thinkistan-Idea Jiska, India Uska Review: Shravan Reddy and Naveen Kasturia are the Only Saving Grace of This Otherwise Amateurish Series

Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy came up with MX Player's latest show 'Thinkistan -Idea Jiska, India Uska'. The web series is based on the advertising agency in the 90s. However, it took me for the 4th episode of the 11-episode series to get the actual hold of the exact timeline it is based on. The basic premises of the story is based on the ultra mod culture of an upscale advertising agency and how it changes the lives of two copywriters. Hema (Shravan Reddy) is a junior copy writer who is seemingly charming and manages to woo girls with his humble demeanor and killer smile. Then there is Amit (Naveen Kasturia) who is a junior Hindi copywriter, who is under-confident yet capable.

The story begins with Hema's 'girly' name 'Hema' and so does stereotyping the South Indians. The makers have made sure to add all the jokes related to stereotyping a south India human, including a long name to his accent. As I said above, you still are not aware that this is actually the 90s era these guys are roaming around in. The reason is the first look of this self-proclaimed 'creative' agency. According to the makers, a creative agency consists of the employees who are allowed to sit, sleep or wander wherever they want, at any given point of time. The employees here were seen making crass jokes on women, objectifying them in every 10 minutes and then calling themselves 'cool'.

Also, the show shows the people here using terms like 'f'*ck', 'dipsh*t' and similar lingo that belongs to the current generation. A scene also includes a very 2019ish 'Farewell sex' in a car. Hello, it is 90s?!  It is only in one of the references where Mandira Bedi who plays the boss, refers to the year 1992 where we suddenly get an idea of the whole time frame. Ironically, in one of the scenes, the protagonist also sings the song of the 'current hit' show, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaenge' infront of Bedi, who in reality was a part of that movie.

If you think this is not enough for you to skip the series, here's more. The series uses the concept of women empowerment in the most contradictory way one would use. Casual sex is called 'using each other' by a female character. There are also dialogues like, "humare yaha ladkiyan pure kapde pehnti hai par sundar dikhti hai." Meanwhile, the issue of infidelity has been used in the most casual way, without any strong support to the track.

No, not all is wrong with the series. There are a few moments which makes us patient to get enough to the end of the series. The friendship between Amit and Hema is something worth a separate sane series. The actors have indeed given their best shot in this and I really hope that they get a deserving script to be this natural on the screen. Then, there is Mandira Bedi, a stellar actress of Bollywood. I really fail to understand, what made her be a part of this series that is made with such callous attitude? Well, there are a lot of questions and honestly, the series has left me appalled more than disappointed. How I wish that the makers showed more about the actual struggle of the copywriters and their survival in the cut-throat competition of 90s. There was a lot of scope to show the way of working of these companies in the era with no much use of cell phones, internet and social media.  Also, what's with the title, if it does not even suit the content?

Yay! 

Shravan Reddy

Naveen Kasturia

Nay!

Everything else.

Final thoughts: The web series can be easily skipped without a shred of doubt. The only reason why you would want to opt for it is talented guys, Shravan and Naveen. With so much brilliantly researched content getting churned out on various digital platforms, the makers surely have a lot to do!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 04, 2019 08:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).