Classy Comedy. Review on Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai

The recent Television awards sprang some real surprises, with most of the prestigious awards going to the fledgling channel Star One. Among these awards, the most were bagged by the crew and cast of Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai, a hilarious, 30-minute sitcom that airs on Mondays at 9PM on Star One.

Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai takes off in the ''Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi'' mould. Only this one's more stylish. Back in the 80s, when Satish Shah worked his magic in ''Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi'', it left all the urban viewers in splits. However, the serial went off the air unexpectedly, leaving all of us wanting for more. What was dished out in the next 20 odd years, in the name of comedy, was pure slapstick. There were several attempts at comedy, most of them inane, with some fairly successful. However, with ''Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai'', comedy has once again returned to the top of the television rankings.

What makes the Sarabhais click the way they do? All credit goes to Deven Bhojani and his script writers. The most essential ingredient in comedy is the script, and this is the serial's biggest strength. Deven's team picks out some wonderful themes each week, and works its magic with some really intelligent humor. Another piece of genius lies in the fact that although the serial is targeted at the upper middle class audience, it connects to the lower class audiences as well through characters like Monisha, the Deaf Uncle and Radha Bai etc. Easily, the script is what makes the serial click.

A good script needs a great set of actors, and Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai has managed to cast the perfect set of actors for the story. Satish Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah, as the senior Sarabhai couple, play off each other fantastically. While Ratna plays Maya Sarabhai with amazing class, Satish's character Indravadhan Sarabhai compliments her perfectly. Maya is the snobbish-yet-lovable high society wife, while Indu is the rich-but-rooted-to-his-middle-class-values husband. Their conversations are full of sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek humor and are always a delight to watch.

Saahil (Sumeet Raghavan) and Monisha (Rupali Ganguli) play the Sarabhais' elder son and his wife. Saahil is the doctor with the heart of gold, who marries a low-class, loud, Punjabi girl Monisha against his mom's wish. Monisha's ignorance and Saahil's patience are both always being tested. Maya takes pot-shots at Monisha at every given opportunity for her middle class ways, and Monisha mocks her Mother-in-law further by her eye-for-a-bargain at every given opportunity. The scenes involving the two women are hilarious for Maya's sarcastic insults, and Monisha's ignorant dismissals of those insults.

Saahil, who loves Monisha for her innocence, but hates her untidy, ill-mannered ways, plays the role of a man stuck between his wife and mom in a very endearing way.

However, the most endearing character comes in the form of Rosesh Sarabhai, the younger scion of the Sarabhai family, and a self-confessed Mama's boy. Rosesh talks like a kid and acts like one too. He follows his Momma's orders religiously and is extremely proud of her. Rajesh Kumar, who plays Rosesh, has done a fantastic job to sound weird, but yet not irritating. The tendency to go over the top is very high in Rosesh's character, but Rajesh does a great job to ensure he does not cross that fine line between being cute and being irritating. Rosesh's horrible poetry irritates Indu and Saahil to no end, and most of the episodes depict this situation, with Indu and Saahil mouthing some delightfully funny one-liners to excuse themselves from the misery of having to listen to Rosesh's brainless poetry.

There are some other characters that appear regularly on the serial adding comic value. Deven Bhojani, who directs the serial, plays a cameo in the serial as the absent-minded, gadget-obsessed son-in-law of the Sarabhais. The deaf Uncle is also a very cute character who invariably forgets his hearing aid, causing hilarious episodes at the Sarabhai household.

The themes for the Sarabhai episodes have so far been very good, except for a couple of ''thanda'' episodes. This being the first season, the script writers would have had a huge list of themes to choose from. However, it remains to be seen if they can continue the high standards in the coming seasons when all their original set of themes would have been exhausted. Hopefully, the Sarabhais can continue to entertain us for many more years in the same high class ways. If not, they run the risk of being dismissed as ''Totally Middle Class''.