His Storyy..3 Brilliant Actors & 1 Broken Marriage

His Storyy(AltBalaji ,11 Episodes)

Starring  Satyadeep Mishra,  Priyamani, Mrinal Dutt

Directed by  Prashant  Bhagia

Rating: *** ½

 This is probably the finest  coming-out  series/film you will  see  in this country  for  a very long time.  I  for one  was bowled  by the maturity displayed in much  of the  writing. Suparn Verma puts  a delicate sensitive  punctuation mark   to almost every  episode  in this very difficult situation.

 A  man after 20 years of a   seemingly happy marriage,and two  children,  comes  out out the closet.It’s  a situation that  begs  for maturity and  adult wisdom. As I sat  watching the complex triangle  unravel itself,  I prayed for the  writer and director to not  mess up.

They didn’t. His Storyy, co-produced  by Balaji  Telefilms and  Ding Infinity,  moves like  a well-oiled  machine. It is smooth-cruising most of  the way , though the  gay relationship that breaks  the  marriage  is  a  little too picture-pretty.And  the  finale left me  very  dissatisfied, as  it is  probably meant to.  Apart from  a couple  of chaste furtive kisses between the  gay couple , director  Prashant Bhagia keeps the proceedings  sanitized. Which is  for the  best. Considering the times we are living through.

A lot  of  the credit for  the series’ scent of authenticity goes to the actors.Satyadeep Mishra and Priyamani  as the married couple who find their  dream world crumble to  the ground all of a sudden , are such skilled actors they can breathe  life into a dead  project. This one is  anything but. It is  a plot woven around the theme  of   disintegrating relationships, not just Sakshi(Priymani) and  Kunal(Satydeep Mishra) but also their friends, all well played by actors who  understand the inner  workings of a relationship and just how much effort, sacrifice and compromise it takes to keep up the façade  of a happy marriage.

Some  of the scenes between the  couple  and their children(nicely played  by Nikhil Bhatia and Mikhial  Gandhi, the older  a full-blown homophobic,  the younger kind gentle , not necessarily gay) are  so beautifully played out I was  pleasantly surprised. Ekta Kapoor is finally coming of  age.

Among all the  dexterously executed parent-child sequences ,  my favourite is  between  Loveleen(Parinitaa Seth), married toa  full-blown toxic  creep(played brilliantly by Rajiv Kumar)  and  her gentle sensitive  poetic probably-gay son Ved(played by  prized find Anmol Amir  Kajani) . Mom shares her son’s anguish and ends the conversation jauntily  with  the  hope that Ved finds a man better than his  father.

This is  a  series that will surprise you with its tonal  veracity and its penetrating gaze  at the hypocrisy  of  a  seemingly perfect urban marriages.It’s  a very good-looking series shot in posh  hotels  and  luxurious  bedrooms   with well-groomed  characters  who probably don’t care who Kanhaiya Kumar is. It is  also the  story of  a largely  homophobic  society where  sensitivity,overt emotions,  and  gay couples are , in the words of  bohemian teenaged girl, “out of  syllabus”

Most of  all , this is  the story of  Sakshi  coming to terms  with  the sudden realization that her  marriage  of twenty years has been a sham. Her shock confusion and  eventual   acceptance are vividly mapped by Priyamani. Initially she is  in denial about  the “perversion” in her  husband and in confusion  she  kisses her best friend Rafia(Charu Shankar) to see if she  feels anything, just to get even with her husband.

Such moments supplant a  deep sense  of empathy in the plot,  imbuing  a feeling  of  tremendous  credibility even to some of   the  less  plausible incidents  that  prop up towards the  ….err… fag end.

No matter how you look at  it  His Storyy is  a game-changer for same-sex  celluloid stories in India. It shows  its  layered characters, played with rock-star assurance by the  cast that knows its  job, making some  tough choices in life and standing by them. For this  alone  His Storyy must be seen at your earliest.