I Luv My India

Cast : Himani Shivpuri,Arun Bali,Imran Khan

What do you say of a serial which had the 10 minutes of its first episode running like a patriotic Chhayageet! It’s annoying to see a loud Punjabi family (the same goes for the Gujaratis) breaking into bhangda and gidda on the pretext of celebrating the Lohri festival. And can we stop playing Rang De Basanti songs for every Punjabi/patriotic situation!

The Sethi couple has three sons,two daughters-in-law,one of who is a grooming expert and the other who speaks in broken English (not funny at all),a grand-daughter who wears short skirts and rolls her eyes,a grandson who breaks into rap songs etc. In short,it’s a crazy bunch,not one of them is normal except for the golden oldies. Mrs and Mr Sethi have settled in London and raised their entire brood in the Queen’s land. So naturally,the younger lot has been suitably corrupted by ‘angrez’ influences. For instance,the grooming bahu calls her mother-in-law ‘Mrs Sethi’ instead of ‘mummyji’,prefers to have wheat flakes over ghee-soaked parathas (something we are sure every health conscious Indian family does as well),a fact which brings tears to Mrs Sethi’s eyes because her son who though loves the parathas can’t afford to make his wife unhappy and so chooses the healthier breakfast option,then there’s the other bahu who doesn’t mind her daughter wearing short skirts and having late nights but her dadi does. There is one son who prefers to sleep for 12 hours a day and has registered himself in the Unemployed Benefits Scheme…something the mother resents and rightly so!

I Luv My India is most likely to go down the holier than thou road with the Sethis turning it into a mera Bharat mahaan east versus west feel-good drama. Sadly,it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. Though at the time of writing we had watched only three episodes,believe you us,we won’t be missing it…We are sure most of the actors featuring in this so-called comedy signed up for the free London holiday because there is nothing else in the script that could keep them going.

There is nothing we can write home about except wonder in dismay if it really comes from the producers (Deeya and Tony Singh) who have delivered in the past and are currently turning out the immensely watchable Parvarrish on SAB’s big sister channel Sony. Sigh!

Verdict: Skip it.