A Story of Ties in Life. Review on Anubandh

After a long time, I have come across a good story on television. Anubandh, which means contract, deals with the sensitive issue of surrogate motherhood. It comes from the same camp as the serial that came in the same slot, Asambhav. Yup, you guessed it, Pallavi Joshi camp. It is a heart capturing story of the lives of two couples crossing each others' paths.

For the new viewers, here is a brief story line. Namita and Shubhankar Pradhan(Bhargavi Chirmule and Tushar Dalvi) are a rich and well-off, but a childless couple, yearning for a child by any means. On the suggestion of Meera (Seema Deshmukh) who is not only Namita's doctor, but also Shubhankar's sister, they decide to put up an advertisement for a surrogate motherhood.

On the other side of life are Ashwini and Sameer(Sai Tamhankar and Ashutosh Kulkarni) who are a middle class couple of childhood sweethearts. Ashwini is a sweet and understanding girl who is willing to go to any limit to her loved ones happy. Ashwni and Sameer are currently involved in a struggle to gather enough funds for Sameer to continue his education abroad.  They are friends with Ketki "Kitty" Pathare  and Rohan who are a live-in couple. Ashwini lives with her cousin's family after losing her parents to a disaster at her hometown. With time she wins her very strict and practical sister-in-law's heart.

Life causes Ashwini's and Namita's paths to cross again and again for some reason or the other, till Kitty answers to the ad placed by the Pradhans for a surrogate mother. A lot of ethical issues crop up between Ashwini and Kitty, where Ashwini accuses her of selling her womb for a "mere" 25 Lakhs but Kitty defends herself that sure, she is getting herself 25 lakhs but she is also giving a couple a lifetime of happiness by giving them a child.

Unfortunately, in spite of the positive results in Kitty's fertility tests, she fails to conceive. All hopes are shattered. Whie here Namita's and Kitty's lives in a bind, Ashwini finds herself caught in a financial scam because of a loan of 10 lakhs borrowed to provide for Sameer's foreign eduation.  In such a situation, Namita proposes to Ashwini that she conceive the Pradhan's child. After a lot of second thoughts, Ashwini agrees, but half-heartedly and as an obligation.

But now what? Will Ashwini really go through with the surrogate motherhood? How is the shattered Kitty going to react when she knows that her best friend has taken up her ticket to wealth? Will she support her or will she withdraw the only support Ashwini has? Will Ashwini conceive the Pradhan's child?

Whew! That's quite a story line. The relationships portrayed in Anubandh are very real. The inner battle that Ashwini goes through when presented with agreeing to surrogacy, the shattered dreams of Namita and Kitty when Kitty fails to conceive, the relationship dynamics between Palash(Meera's actor husband played by Rahul Mehendale) and Namita, and Palash and Meera - all have their streak of finesse.

The title song and background deserve an honorable mention. The title song lyrics are beautiful.

Hope this review inspires you to watch the TV serial. Anubandh comes on Zee Marathi every evening at 8.30 pm from Monday to Saturday.