Everybody should get a second chance in life - Iqbal Khan.

 Talented and versatile TV and web actor Iqbal Khan is adding yet another feather to his cap. He is now headlining a Sony SAB TV medical drama titled  Hui Gumm Yaadein.  Ek Doctor, Do Zindagiyaan

Iqbal's character, Dr Dev Mehta, loses eight years of his memory.

" I have never touched this genre before, so I'm really excited about it.

 And, the story about getting second chances in life is very close to my heart. Everybody should get a second chance in life."

 "In fact, life is about a second chance.  The first part is to figure out what's happening. The actual living i is the second part."

Here, Iqbal says his show, while focusing on the medical part, "( we did training to avoid major bloopers), we will not go granular as say, The Good  Doctor." says he

The basis is human emotions, as seen even in the original Italian series, DOC – Nelle tue mani

Iqbal is joined by Gulki Joshi and Poonam Preet, who play his first wife and sister, respectively . " Dr Mehta's memory loss will create a lot of emotional upheaval with the above women in his life"

  Iqbal, who comes from a family of doctors (both his sisters are medical professionals), says," The white coat is a noble profession; doctors save lives daily. But yes, on the daily grind, we TV actors slog even more than the doctor"

"I might have become a doctor, but I did not want to study those thick books. You need to invest five years to complete the studies, then comes the internship and the house job(residency)," added he

Iqbal is not worried about adding masala to give long legs to a limited seresi " We Indians have loads of such stuff to add melodrama, but our producer and the entire team will not do anything which will take away from the original premise. "

  

Iqbal has no problem with the longish format of desi TV;" we need to be thankful to God for the opportunity and do our best," says he

In closing, Iqbal says the biggest challenge for him during the shoot is the high emotional quotient of my character," who is always caring about others. It gets draining to maintain that level day in and day out, but then that is our job as actors to add life to any charcter."

We wish Iqbal all the best for yet another exciting outing in his long, distinguished career. 

Dr. Aarambhi descending into yet another saas- bahu tearjerker?

 Honest admission,  dil vs dimag debate 

Whenever I watch Dr Aarambhi's show on Color's TV, my blood boils because the makers had a lovely chance to make a classy medical show interspersed with women's empowerment tropes, as in the K-drama Dr Cha.

   But unfortunately, our desi makers have reduced this  Aishwarya Khare-led effort into yet another suffering bahu trope. Aarambhi seems to be the most troubled woman on Mother Earth. 

 The lead in Dr Cha too faced a cheating husband, indifferent kids, and an evil MIL, yet it still felt like a human drama. We do meet bad people.   But the FL fought for herself, not just took crap.

There is no saving grace in Vishwas ( Aditya   Redijj); on the other hand, the Korean hubby had some human elements.

Had the story been more multifaceted, it would have given Aishwarya, many more chances to showcase her varied acting chops rather than just one emotion.

  But here's the rub: Aarambhi has opened well, so it means audiences like it. We're in a business, so profit trumps everything.

 So now the makers will further delay the empowerment, and we can't blame them either. Why kill a milch cow?

 The powers that be are right in their thinking that doubting Thomases, like me, dont have numbers behind us. We may cry to the heavens about "decaying" content, yet we are not numerically enough to make any attempt to go beyond the pale.

   There is a lot of money riding on every show, and it's not a vanity effort to please a niche crowd.

 

  If there were a genuine demand for a change show like Anupamaa, it would not be a hit.

 Sony has attempted to change its med drama. Dhadkan  Zindagi was half different. The underlying theme was still women facing a lopsided system; it was an attempt to push evolution, but it did not work.

  Audiences need to accept small incremental changes. Rome was not built in a day.

We touched base with  Aishwarya about the same, and this is what she had to say

I feel that people tend to forget that it's a long-term concept, not a finite series. Things open slowly, is what I feel, and yes, there's trp pressure every week, so each week needs a high point.