Ajeeb Daastaan Hai Ye

Ajeeb Daastaan Hai Ye was an Indian television soap opera which aired for five months in 2014-15 before being withdrawn after proving a flop with abysmal TRP ratings. Produced by Ekta Kapoor's Balaji Telefilms, the soap was aired on Life OK TV channel.^[1]

Plot

Shobha (Sonali Bendre) is a middle-aged housewife married to politician Samarth (Harsh Chhaya), and they had two teenage children. The couple have a seemingly happy marriage until Shobha discovers that her husband is having an affair. After confronting him with the matter, Shobha orders him out of the house (which has been financed entirely by the husband) overnight. She then informs her children of the matter, and ensures that they do not get to hear their father's side of the story. Her prolonged interactions with a feminist social worker and lawyer are used by the producers to educate the viewer of various woman-oriented laws and police practices that women in India can avail of in such circumstances. Using these laws and practices, Shobha manages to deny her husband access to his children pending a court order and even changes the locks in the house.

Having taken possession of the most valuable property owned by the family, Shobha makes a virtue of "supporting herself and her children" by taking up a job. Her boss, Vikram Ahuja (Apurva Agnihotri), is portrayed as a typical patriarchal misogynist, and this is projected as being the norm in India. However, it is time for the monster to be tamed and converted into a champion of feminism, and the serial devoted itself to this cause. Vikram also slowly considers her a friend and hence a new journey starts for both of them. The narrative had reached this point, when the TRPs, abysmal to begin with, dropped to approximately zero, and market research revealed that the few people who had viewed the soap at any time were unable to swallow the idea of a middle-aged mother having an affair, even if only to spite her husband. Given low TRPs and evident disinterest among viewers, the assessment was made that modifying the storyline would be just throwing good money after bad. The serial was simply discontinued.

Trivia

The show marks the debut of Bollywood actress Sonali Bendre on Indian television in fiction genre.^[2][3][4] The title of the show Ajeeb Daastaan Hai Ye is inspired from the eponymous song from the 1960 Bollywood film Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai, originally sung by Lata Mangeshkar.^[5] The show aired between 7 October 2014 and 6 March 2015.

Cast

• Sonali Bendre as Shobha Sachdev
• Apurva Agnihotri as Vikram Ahuja
• Vivana Singh as Sarika Sachdev/Madhura Kashyap(antagonist)
• Harsh Chhaya as Samarth Sachdev
• Alka Amin as Sharda Sachdev
• Devyansh Tapuriah as Rehaan
• Kreesha Shah as Jia
• Ruchi Savarn as Garima Ganguly
• Sandeep Rajora as Tarun
• Anurag Sharma as Sandeep
• Mihika Verma as Shikha
• Rushad Rana as Saurabh Ganguly
• Gaurav Nanda as Anil
• Prashant Chawla as Sanjay Ganguly
• Vivian Dsena as Abhay
• Garima Kapoor as Riddhima

References

External links

• Official Website on hotstar