And then there were More

For a country which has largely found itself enduring a huge cloud of inferiority complex, for a nation where a vast majority of the youth turns towards the west to seek constant recognition for every action of theirs, it is almost surprising that an indigenous web series created by a bunch of erstwhile techies is ruling the roost of the entertainment fora.

Pitchers by TVF has been a phenomenal success, and this success has come despite a plethora of odds stacked against them. Rejected by MTV on the pretext that the Indian youth isn’t mature and intellectual enough to assimilate such content, the team at TVF rode against the tide and reposed faith in their ideas, the outcome of which is quite evident currently.

A lot of people have questioned their content and dismissed this as a shot in the dark, some have even gone on to reject this as overnight success. The fact is that the naysayers have been living in oblivion. The team at TVF has been doling out quality content since some time now and you will resonate with this fact if the term Qtiyapa has become part of your personal dictionary.

They began with humor and perhaps now that they have a subscriber base, they are steering towards more mature content. Even after Permanent Roommates there was a segment of the audience which wasn’t quite acknowledging their brilliance, needless to say that segment has been completely owned post the success of Pitchers.

What most of us don’t realize is that this is a very difficult time to please the Indian audience, they are so accustomed to watching the best of TV content emanating from the West that a slight glitch in the direction or the storyline will be noticed and might deliver a knockout blow to a potential decent content. The viewers have become so discreet in their opinions that a substandard show will certainly bite the dust. And to be able to generate content of this variety with the same consistency and with this celerity surely calls for some commitment and of course a lot of creativity.

Pitchers, if you observe it closely isn’t just about an Indian version of an ‘American dream’. The show does not stop at highlighting the struggles of what a few enterprising individuals have to go through in our country to find their dreams, it’s a lot more than that. It’s about sacrifices, that everything in life comes at a price. From the outside it might appear to be a rosy picture to everyone but only the ones who have weathered the tide will know what they had to go through to reach the shore. A completely fulfilled life is a myth and Naveen’s personal predicament is a stark reminder of that at the end of the season.

It’s also about drawing strength from your closed ones and when need be standing against them too, even though if it means rejection from your family. Jeetu has always found constant support from his wife and so has Naveen from his girlfriend Shreya, but for Jeetu it also meant going against the advice of his father, someone he has not dared to defy since he was one and a half.  

Other than all this, there has been core feminism at play which is depicted through the sheer strength of the characters of Shreya and Saumya. Had it not been for the two of them, the entire startup plan would’ve fallen on its feet. For Shreya, picking job over boyfriend, for Saumya, uncertainty over stability, highlights the compromises made by the females too.

Apart from this there are a lot of other sub-themes at work too. Young students gone awry in engineering colleges, the superficial yet appealing glamor of startups, and the mean world of investors and the ensuing politics, all have been wonderfully captured in this series which leaves you wanting for more in the end. The detail can probably be attributed to the TVF team’s own experience in getting this dream of theirs, of a creative house, on its feet. But it’s one thing to have experiences and another to learn from them and utilize them for representation purpose on the screen. For this the entire team deserves all the accolades coming its way.

The only bone of contention which remains is whether they will be able to continue their dream run, I hope they do and I know a lot of other people too are backing them to deliver.

Presently the show has a lot fans on their feet, but the team should remember that all this fame and glory, it’s akin to walking on thin ice, one wrong step and the same fan would turn into a beast. So you guys better keep the good content coming!