Faadu A Love Story Review: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari's Obsession With Male Protagonist's Overconfidence Dulls Viewing Experience in Pavail Gulati and Saiyami Kher's SonyLIV Series (LatestLY Exclusive)

Faadu A Love Story Review: A few names make you very excited about a project. Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari is one such name. Bareilly Ki Barfi is a personal favourite while I adore Nil Battey Sannata and Panga. Faadu: A Love Story thus got me very excited but I never knew realism can be this sluggish. Faadu Teaser: The Series Maps the Journey of Two Complex Individuals and Their Contrasting Life Ideologies on Ambition and Love.

Abhay's (Pavail Gulati) extreme sense of self gives him the confidence that he can become bigger and richer despite his circumstances. He meets Manjari (Saiyami Kher), a poetry enthusiast, and both fall in love. They marry and Abhay's dream to become rich cruises ahead full steam. Finally, he succeeds but everything else soon starts fading away from his life.

Faadu celebrates Abhay's confidence in himself. It begins with Abhay's perspectives on how to get out of the slum and be a man of wealth. But at times it does show him the mirror, especially the time when his best-laid gambling plans go for a toss. Everything looks very real. However, despite his lofty ambitions, Abhay enjoys poetry and even writes a few couplets. His character is written with a lot of thought in mind and that shows.

The last bit also seems to be the problem here. Tiwari's direction is in awe of its protagonist. While it safely doesn't replace the awe with glorification, the fixation on Abhay's story dulls down the entire series. It loses purpose. It doesn't have an extraordinary story anyway. Faadu just sheds all the flashy shenanigans of the genre of rags-to-riches stories by adding a few reality checks. In such a situation, it's important to take the audience on this journey of struggle and the eventual win. But Faadu never does. It seems more like a listless narrative of a man experiencing highs and lows in his life as per his ambitions. And all that at such a sluggish pace that it's tedious.

Other characters suffer from neglect. Manjari whose POV is used in some of the initial episodes, gets relegated to just a wife who doesn't approve of Abhay's ways. That's it! Abhilash Thapliyal, the famous SK Sir from TVF's Aspirants, plays Abhay's brother Roxy, an alcoholic. The only arc he gets is he reforms his ways. What's strange is the way Manjari, wide-eyed and transfixed, nods and supports every wild goose chase Abhay is on. The same goes for her father who never questions Abhay's motives even when he was just making tall claims. Ghar Ki Murgi Movie Review: Sakshi Tanwar-Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari's Short Film Is That Much-Needed 'Sorry' To All The Women Who Have Been Taken For Granted!.

Watch the trailer of Faadu A Love Story

Performances are good. Pavail superbly delivers Abhay's confidence, angst, love and success. Saiyami adds just the right contrast to his character while Thapliyal is one-dimensional. However, it's simply amazing to watch Ashwini Bhave here. Might just rewatch Sainik, just to relive her presence in the 90s.

Yay!

-Abhay's confidence

-a celebration not a glorification

Nay!

-too fixated on Abhay

-tediously slow

-convenient character graph

Final Thoughts

Faadu A Love Story could have been that one superior take on the rags to riches narrative but takes itself too seriously to reach anywhere. Faadu streams on SonyLIV.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 09, 2022 11:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).