The setting is familiar. The characters are the same. The dialogues will take you back 25 years. And Tulsi stands — strong and unmoved — behind the tulsi plant that gave her her name, as she smiles and welcomes you into her aangan in her trademark style. An image that, of course, spawned a TV phenomenon a quarter of a century ago that has rarely been challenged on Indian screens.
After a Season One spanning a few years — a whopping 1,833 episodes to be precise — the second season of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi dropped on Tuesday night on STAR Plus and JioHotstar, less than a month after its 25th anniversary.
The 30-minute episode was a warm-up, which meant it was dominated by archival footage of the first season. That included quite a bit of a nostalgic hook. Tulsi (Smriti Irani) and Mihir’s (Amar Upadhyay) 38th wedding anniversary meant moments shared between the two in the first season — including Mihir’s ‘death’ and that memorable scene of him reappearing just as Tulsi is about to be married to Anupam Kapadia (Aman Verma) — came up at regular intervals.
Mihir is now a business tycoon and a health freak who pretends to forget their anniversary, but surprises Tulsi by gifting her a swanky ride. But when her children — of which one is Karan (Hiten Tejwani is 51 while Smriti is 49 and Amar is age 48) — urge her to learn driving, Mihir says that Tulsi is best at doing household chores. This is not a one-off.
In another instance, Mihir boasts about how his weight has remained constant thanks to Tulsi’s “homemade protein shake”. However, when Tulsi gets on the weighing scale and cringes at the number that comes up, it is mined for laughs. Sexism doesn’t get an upgrade, clearly, even 25 years later.
What also doesn’t get better is the show’s shockingly low production values (in fact, Season 1, given the times, looked better). The only one who seemed to have kept up with the times is Ketaki Dave’s Daksha, who has easily been one of the most entertaining characters in Hindi television. Daksha, looking exactly like she did 25 years ago, now struts around with a mobile phone and prides herself on the selfies she clicks. Aa ra ra ra!
