Indian TV is generally synonymous with regressive story lines, shoddy direction, bad writing, one-dimensional performances... lets face it, for anyone with any kind of sensibility, Serialized television in India is frankly unwatchable, with the exception of maybe one or two shows.
In the midst of all this, comes Bring On The Night, with a high powered adrenalin injection straight into the jugular of the Indian television scene.
Shot in Hindi and English with some Marathi thrown in, it is the story of 4 friends, christened 'The Wolfpack' and led by sensitive entrepreneur KD, they start a party hangout joint for like- minded people. The philosophy being, 'When the party ends, where do people go to party?'
What follows is ten episodes of intelligent writing, brilliant acting, fantastic music, and excellent direction. Every episode is crammed with interesting characters, and genuine laugh out loud moments.
But its not all fun and games, there is a lot of depth to the story and characters.
Each actor brings something to the table. Devang, played played extremely sincerely by Husain Dalal is funny, especially when he is playing confused and out of his depth. Patrick, played by Patrick Graham completely succeeds in bringing the feeling of being the stranger in a strange land, but completely at home. Maakad, played by Sarang Sathiye brings a kind of sensitivity to the character not often seen. His conflict is felt by the viewers, and its the easiest thing to get behind him and root for him. The three Parsee characters, Xerxes, Hoshang, and Darius, played by Afshad Kelawala, Kashyap Kapoor and Danesh Irani respectively provide the comic relief, some of it gratuitous, but all of it brilliant.
With so many characters, each one written and performed on point, it is very difficult to stand out when you are playing the straight man, but Arjun Mathur, who plays KD, doesn't seem to struggle, and manages to more than hold his own. A role that needs to be fun, intelligent, and sensitive is brought to life with his performance, and by the time the series is at midway point, manages to become the most engaging of the lot.
I could go on, but I won't. Instead, I urge anyone who reads this to get on the MTV India website and check the show out on their own accord. You will not be disappointed.
