Anupama Namaste America is streaming on Disney Plus Hotstar. (Photo: Disney Plus Hotstar/Instagram) Star Plus show Anupama has undertaken the huge task of sensitively, authentically, and sometimes preachily showing the everyday life of a homemaker living with a thankless husband, children and parents-in-law. Its protagonist Anupama, played by Rupali Ganguly, is ever-sacrificing — her identity, her dreams, and also her jewellery, for her family. But then the makers of the show thought, ‘No, this is not enough’. We should dig deeper into Anupama’s miserable life. And, they made Anupama: Namaste America.
So, if you were not convinced about why Anupama is an ideal ‘bahu’, ‘biwi’ and ‘maa’ after watching over 500 episodes of the Star Plus show, you should probably switch to Disney Plus Hotstar to watch Anupama: Namaste America. Here, you will see the origin of Mrs Goody-Two-Shoes and how her dreams are being crushed by a male chauvinist Vanraj Shah (Sudhanshu Pandey).
The prequel started streaming on Disney Plus Hotstar on Monday. With two episodes already out from the 11-episode series, I feel the show is only an extension of what we saw in the first six months of its televised version: it tells you what all Anupama ‘jheloed’ in her marriage with Vanraj. Only this time, Ganguly has kept Anupama chirpy and lively, but she also delivers enough sad-but-c’est-la-vie expressions into the camera.
Without his moustache, Pandey manages to look much younger and shows a little fondness for Anupama, His take and character are limited to “ghar ke liye toh achi hai” (sigh). He is as jealous of his wife’s success as he is in Anupama.
The only new, and also good element is the character of ‘Moti Baa’, who is more progressive than the uber-rich parents you saw on Indian Matchmaking. She is ahead of her time ‘saas’ who wants her ‘bahu’ to take the flight of her dreams and reach the heights of success. Actor Sarita Joshi fits the part well. Her Gujarati accent comes naturally to her.
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Sarita Joshi (centre) plays the role of Moti Baa in Anupama Namaste America. (Photo: Disney Plus Hotstar) For the fear of being trolled by the fans, I must admit it is all good when it comes to giving the necessary lessons on ‘how to treat a housewife’, ‘how to behave with a daughter-in-law’ and ‘how every woman’s dreams are important, be it a housemaker or a career-oriented one’. But I wonder why the makers have released it as a web show instead of adding these 11 episodes in the currently running TV show. Since the audience it plans to reach out is very much on TV.
It seems like the writers of the show had no bigger ideas in mind. It was just done to tap into the popularity of digital space and could very well be a ploy to bring in more subscribers to Hotstar.
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