Truly emotional, beautifully narrated and heartfelt – That’s what His Storyy turns out to be which is indeed one of the best web series to have arrived in 2021. Though the year has just begun and there are many more stories to be told, one has to admit that sheer quality, depth and soul that this Prashant Bhagia directed and Suparn Verma written offering brings with it would certainly make it sit amongst the best.
There is a lot more to His Storyy than what the promo may have suggested. Yes, it’s about a man (Satyadeep Mishra), married to a wonderful woman (Priyamani) for 20 years and having an affair for 3 years with another man (Mrinal Dutt). They are rich, they are influential, and they are in a society where initial shock can eventually lead to eventual acceptance (well, almost). However, the 11 episode web series currently streaming on ZEE5 and ALT Balaji is a lot more than that.
It is about trust, betrayal, love, confusion, acceptance, dissent and a lot more. Though one would have expected something either cliched and typical, or dramatic and filmy, what you get to see is a truly realistic account where human emotions are displayed on screen like never before. A lot of credit for that goes to the writing and especially the dialogues which are plain and simple but yet so effective and real life, something that makes practically every scene count.
This is what makes this near 3 hour long web series a snappy and engaging affair as there isn’t much time wasted in a scene that is unnecessary, something that did turn out to be be case for many web offerings that last 40-60 minutes per episode and in the process sometimes indulge in scenes that were not absolutely required. In case of this Ekta Kapoor backed web series, everything is just balanced out there, something that makes you root for it.
The performances further accentuate the overall appeal. Satyadeep bags one of his best written roles and makes sure that he is almost perfect in practically every scene. He doesn’t play by the stereotypes. In fact while being a bisexual, with core orientation towards men, he is being a perfect husband at home as well. Even in the face of adversity, he never loses his cool, despite his wife, kids (Nikhil Bhatia, Mikhail Gandhi) and friend (Rajiv Kumar) reacting to him differently in different situations. There are a couple of junctures where you do expect a filmy element to come in with an outburst or two bit, but Satyadeep does well in staying true to the character.
As for Priyamani, it is wonderful to see her getting due in the Hindi world of entertainment as well. If in Family Man she was quite balanced, here she is a voice of reason. With a myriad of emotions that she goes through, she wonderfully demonstrates the pain that a woman goes through on finding out that her husband is cheating on her. Yes, the way her approach changes towards the situation at the end is a bit too difficult to digest. However, that can well be the writer’s point of view.
Mrinal is turning out to be a find. A regular with the Hello Mini series, even in a commercial set up like that he displayed a balanced act. Now in His Storyy, he is a natural to the core, especially so when it comes to his dialogue delivery. He keeps it all simple as the handsome hunk next door and the love and affection that he has for Satyadeep as well as his guilt for Priyamani is well conveyed. Again, just like Priyamani’s characterisation, even he goes through a different approach towards the finale, but that’s more due to the way his character is written here than the manner in which he projects it on screen.
Another actor who stands out is Rajiv Kumar. Yes, he is a loud mouthed Punjabi but isn’t a typical ‘balls balle’ man who goes through the cliches. He is the kind of uncleji that we have around us who has his own issues to deal with but then does come with a ‘yaaron ka yaar’ virtue as well. A balanced act. On the hand the kids are a find. Nikhil Bhatia is every bit the frustrated teenager who doesn’t have the correct idea of right or wrong. However the boy for which your heart goes out is Mikhail Gandhi. He is sweet, but not in a filmy way, and that’s what makes him so endearing.
Endearing – That’s the core essence of this
Tanveer Bookwala produced web series that keeps you entertained right through, sometimes tugging your heart strings, sometimes bringing on a smile and sometimes leading to a tear in the eye. Do watch it, and you would enjoy the journey of His Storyy.