TVF Aspirants Analysis

 TVF Aspirants (2021)

Created by: Arunabh Kumar, Shreyansh Pandey
Written by: Deepesh Sumitra Jagadish
Directed by: Apoorva Singh Karki

Set in the world of UPSC aspirants, this show tells us the story of struggles, perseverance and mainly about dealing with failure, pulling ourselves together back again and moving on in life. The setting of Old Rajinder Nagar comes through extraordinarily by the way they shot it - both in exteriors and in interiors. They set simple, filler scenes in the canteen which has walls in the background with posters of toppers. In a stationery shop where they are getting notes. Students are walking in the background. Some naysayers are around. The madness and the chaos is constantly visible. The curiosity that kept building by how Abhilash is a collector now, in spite of him failing in the last attempt - that was interesting. Though, I figured that they'd use some convenient loop hole and cover it up, it was very helpful in bringing out the ending - where they show the relentless pursuit of a dream. The way he happily goes back to pursue it, even after 4 years of failure. There are beautiful moments in the show, where they talk about the fear of failure, about not knowing what to do - like the moment in Panchayat where Jeetu rants - these are the moments where we can see ourselves in the characters which TVF nails every single time. This time, the music helped like crazy. Whenever the violin track picks up, I was totally pulled into the show. 

For me, the casting of Dhairya didn't work that much. She felt a little out of place. She looked too elegant, well groomed, and poised for a UPSC aspirant, who generally don't even sleep that well, and for sure don't have time to take care of themselves that well. Or maybe she's an exception. But on the face value, it seemed a little off. Whenever Guri, Abhilash and SK fight - to keep the drama and tension high - they say insane shit to each other and it feels out of character. Who'd say stuff like, 'You ended up at Rajinder Nagar, what a failure you are' for something so trivial, and then they get back together so casually. I'm like: WHAT! Friendships can break when you say such stuff. It's the truth, but you wouldn't want to purposefully hurt or insult your friends so often right? And also, because of the lack of subtlety in these fights, we immediately give up on the drama and think that 'yeah, they're fighting now' and let it be. But the Guri, Abhilash fight in the finale was so convincing. Overall, I loved the show.