A new flavour

Sarvagun Sampanna,Imagine-Ekta Kapoors newest baby is uncharted territory.

Sarvagun Sampanna
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Sarvagun Sampanna,Imagine-Ekta Kapoors newest baby is uncharted territory. That the show is about a lavni dancer gave us hope of watching something not seen before but having watched about six episodes,we doubt if the makers will go the whole hog! To have your protagonist in nine yard saris and dancing to the latest Jau dyana malavaajle ki baara lavni number is not enough if the rest of the story is going to fall into the typical Balaji trap.

Sarvaguna Sampanna is about Swara,a pretty lavni dancer and the apple of her parents eyes. Her mother dreams of a better future for her and a life far away from lavni and tamasha. Then there is a politician,a revered minister in Kolhapur,his wife and four sons. While the eldest Aditya Raje is unmarried,the second and third are married and the youngest one is bed ridden! There is a mystery surrounding him which we are sure,the makers will unravel with a deafening background score at the right time read when ratings start dipping. Aaisaheb is looking for a sunbai for her first born and thinks Swara is fit for the part. After all,she sang the aarti at the local Mahalaxmi temple and has also a tender heart she helped a poor mother to feed her baby. Meanwhile,the manager of Swaras tamasha troupe wants to marry her while the minister and his wife too have expressed a desire to have Swara as their daughter-in-law.

Looks like the makers didnt want to make Swara a typical lavni dancer,complete with naughty thumkas and a saucy personality,so you have her in cholis with modest necklines; so atypical of a tamasha dancer. Swara has neither that charming,alluring sexy persona of a tamasha dancer,nor that ada. Instead,she is a saaf suthri version of a lavni dancer. We would have loved to see Swara change personalities by day and night. If she is a simple girl,moving around with puja thalis in plain cotton salwar kurtas by day,why not show her as the femme fatale at night. Why cant an attractive,sensuous lavni dancer dream of a normal marriage? And so we think,Sarvaguna Sampanna barely pushes the envelope!

About the performances,Nivedita Saraf as Aaisaheb is a pleasure to watch graceful and gentle on the eye and so are Prasad Pandit as Annasaheb,the politician father and Sunita Rao,who plays Swaras mother.

Pooja Bose as Swara fails to lend depth to her character and we would rather have a Maharashtrian actress in the role. In fact,barring a couple of actors,the rest of the cast should have been picked up from Marathi-speaking circle. It would have taken the show a couple of notches higher. The second bahu dresses more like a lavni dancer with her glittering saris they could just blind you 8211; and loud make-up while the rest of the cast is just about average.

What we do like are the little nuances the creative team has added like the bullock cart race or the Mahalaxmi puja or even the smattering of Marathi lines in their conversation keeping in tune with the Maharashtrian/Kolhapur setting.
A fair attempt at doing something different though we wish it was really sarvaguna sampanna.
Verdict: Better than the usual TV fare. If nothing else,it offers you a different flavour.