| Racy teen drama | |
| Piyush Roy Jersey N0.10 Mon - Thu 9 pm; SAB TV Archie meets Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar in cricket country - that's Jersey No. 10 for you in brief. Riverdale is recreated in Lonavala in a fictitious Victoria Sports Academy that's supposed to be one of the best cricket coaching academies in the country known for discovering and grooming new talents for the national cricket team. Into this academy enters Nakul, an average and naughty but adorable boy next door with dreams and determination, who's pitted opposite Arjun, the typical the rich ladykiller boy with a proud pedigree and tons of attitude modeled a la Reggie. While the show's sporting track revolves around Nakul's challenge to Arjun in the race for who will be the captain and wear the prestigious Jersey No. 10, on the romantic front, if there's Archie, can Veronica and Betty be far behind? They pop forth from the academy's equally driven girl's tennis team occasionally steaming up the soap's near parallel love tracks with all its teen sensibilities. A bit of Chak De! India too is thrown into the drama in the cricket team's coach, Bedi's brooding stubble act, nursing a Kabir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan's character in Chak De! India) hangover, in a similar situation of instilling team spirit in a rag tag team, simultaneously fielding his own personal demons of losing out on a prestigious match as a player. And if the warring antics of 'the boys with hearts of men' weren't enough, there's a parallel adult track waiting to unveil, with dark horse Nakul actually being the illegitimate son of Arjun's dad. With enough drama happening both on and off field the show makes for a watchable campus romance with a perfectly cast ensemble adult cast. Ironically, it's the youngsters around whom the show actually revolves who tend to disappoint a bit. For instance, Arjun vain act is too caricaturish to impress. Can we please do away with his irritatingly accented Hindi? An accented speak as a sign of class is a trick long pass just like the sacrificing goings in an amateurishly treated teen romance track that just seems to be a nowhere going filler at the moment. The show's other lead, Nakul, however seems to have consolidated his act well on the performance metre. Amongst the elders, Sanjeet Bedi as the coach is effective and impressive in one of his most well defined characters on TV till date, while the veteran Ritu Raj as Arjun's ambitious father peps up his act with some natural villainy. Verdict: |
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