A millennial love story with twists, family issues, the saga of traditional values and family legacy, and melodious tunes of classical music. This is how I would prefer to describe the Bandish Bandits show on Amazon Prime Video.
Name- Bandish Bandits
Where can you watch- Amazon Prime Video
Number of episodes- 10
Genre- Rom-Com
Casting- Shreya Chaudhary (as Tamanna), Ritwik Bhowmik (as Radhe), Naseeruddin Shah (as Pandit Ji), Sheeba Chaddha as Mohini, Rajesh Tailang as Rajendra, Amit Mistry as Devendra, Kunaal Roy Kapur as Arghya, Rahul Kumar as Kabir, Dilip Shankar as Raja Ji, Atul Kulkarni as Digvijay, Rituraj Singh as Harsvardhan, Shashi Kiran as Munshi Ji, Meghna mailk as Avantika, Tridha Choudhary as Sandhya, Priyanka Arya as Paddu and many more
Director- Anand Tiwari
Producer- Amritpal Bindra, Payal Sachdev
Screenplay- Lara Ahsan Chandni, Amritpal Bindra
DOP- Sriram Ganpathy
Music- Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy
Lyricist- Divyanshu Malhotra, Tanishk Nabar, Sameer Samant
Singers- Jonita Gandhi, Armaan Malik, Shivam Mahadevan, Javed Ali, Mohammad Aman, Farid Hasan, Ajoy Chakraborty, Shreeya Sondur, Pratibha Baghel
Rating- 9/10
Review
Bandish Bandits is the typical small city guy and a celeb metropolitan city girl and a not-so cliché story. Both of them are on their paths to achieve their respective goals. Somehow, they work together as a team to help each other reach their aim but also help resolve each other’s shortcomings.
The show will hook you right from the starting with its title song which is a perfect medley of modern tune and traditional voice! Set in Jodhpur, it will give you a complete account of the classical musical family, known as Gharana. The legacy of music is passed on to generations but isn’t something that everyone can handle well.
The tale of the famous pop star, Tamanna, and the ordinary classical singer, Radhe is indeed relatable and heartbreaking too. The show has depicted various subplots in a single plot and all of them are important to be shown and have been presented well. Be it acting out to seek inspiration for a song, the typical love story, disturbed family, a parent who never appreciated his/her child for the achievements, the entertainment industry business’ politics, the tiff between the town boy and a city girl who is a pop star, a dream to perform with an international artist, a female giving up on her dreams and her love for family, the young facing the financial pressure and doing everything to take out his family from the debt, an MMS going viral over the internet and affecting one’s life has been depicted amazingly. These elements combined with the excellent cinematography, aesthetic locations, and soulful music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy will indeed keep you hooked and watch till the end.
While the storyline might not seem fresh but the depiction surely is. Every character has its distinct importance in the story and this is something which I admired. Naseeruddin Shah was a good choice to portray the character of Pandit Ji. And I won’t hesitate to say that the character was selfish and self-centered, dominating and insecure.
Being a musical show, the music was of course amazing and a perfect blend of traditional and modern at some points and one overpowering the other at the right places. The music producers, singers, and lyricists did a fabulous job with the music content of the show. For those who are music lovers will be in for a treat while watching the show. The costume designer too thoroughly researched and organized the wardrobe and every character seemed to be dressed perfectly as per the scene and their character sketch.
While on one hand, Radhe tries to solve his family issues and save his musical legacy, on the other hand, Tamanna and he have turbulence in their relationship. Eventually, Tamanna gives up on her dreams and singing. While the first half focused on their meeting, their partnership, and their respective issues, the second half showed they battling issues together, each preparing and motivating the other for Tamanna’s live show and Radhe’s Sangeet Samrat. But in between, Tamanna vanishes from his life.
The show will twist and turn in the most unimaginable ways. As for me, Tamanna’s character with her blue highlights, a soft voice but the bold and strong girl made a place in my heart. As for Atul Kulkarni, he is one of my favorites and he did complete justice to his character with his acting and emotions.
The series is humorous at one point, lovey-dovey and intense at the other. At some points, it did feel like it was stretching a bit but on the whole, it will keep you entertained throughout and will leave you heavy-hearted.
Will her live show go well? Will he win the title of Sangeet Samrat? Will they continue their journey as a musical duo and a couple? To have answers to these questions, you will have to watch the show.
Meanwhile for those have, please listen to the curated musical playlist of the show over here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSYpxo7behA
The Scribbler's Dais 