Cast: Sivaji, Vasuki Anand, Mouli, Vasanthika, Anil charan, Rohan Roy
Crew:
Music by Suresh Bobbili
Cinematography by Azeem Mohammad
Editing by Sreedhar Sompalli
Written & Directed by Aditya Haasan
Produced by Naveen Medaram, Rajasekhar Medaram
Streaming on ETV WIN
Total No: of Episodes – 6
Genre: Drama
Web-series Rating: 3.0/5
We all have nostalgic memories about our childhood, grand parents village, hometown and our interactions with parents. 90’s kids and 2k Kids debate has been going on as the new generation is evolving and growing up quickly. But going back to those 90’s nostalgic memories, where social media isn’t this popular and things are not so easily available on a platter in this global village. The kind of hesitations, fears and complexities that 90’s kids had are also different from 2k kids. So, a team has come together to address all of those nostalgic memories in a web-series, #90’s – A Middle Class biopic. Let’s discuss about it further.
Plot:
Raghu Teja(Mouli), a tenth class student, narrates to us about his life during the year. His father Chandra Sekhar(Sivaji) is a reputed and respected government school teacher from Wanaparthy. He is a legend in the town and one of the best mathematicians. He is very strict with his children while being a softy at heart. Raghu’s sister, Divya(Vasanthika) and younger brother, Aditya(Rohan Roy) are also studying in the same school. Divya and Raghu study well but Aditya doesn’t have the same seriousness towards studies. Raghu’s mother Rani(Vasuki Anand) is a home-maker. Plot revolves around this family though his tenth standard year.
Analysis:
Writer-director Aditya Haasan seems to have taken inspiration from Yeh Meri Family, Gullak kind of web-series for this one. While the writing tries to bring out similar sense of slice of life drama, it has its own head, body and structure. It doesn’t try to a remake or resemble some other show while in principle it is similar kind of a one. It engages from the first moment and narrates every story within the broad story, that is, life, without getting too much into melodramatic zone. It tries to not go away from realistic space to keep the things as simple as possible. While few scenes and stories don’t really have much depth, UPMA episode or story and the initial one and final one have moments that we all might have gone through at least once in our lives.
Sivaji has embodied the character of a middle class father, who is trying to make the ends meet while also trying to build their careers. It is not like he is even struggling to bring home food grains but he is a father from 90’s who is trying to do what is good for him and for his family at the same time. Mouli gives a compelling performance and Vasanthika is also very good. She has a very believable and emotive face. Vasuki Anand is believable and gets her moment to shine in UPMA episode. Also, her performance in final two episodes is arresting. Rohan Roy takes the cake above all with his comic timing. All others are also good.
While writing has moments, it also drags a point or a scene a bit too much at times. The interesting struggles and interpersonal relationships between the characters don’t evolve after a point. May be the series is all about the nostalgia factor but it does require some more weight in writing than just keep it all at surface level. The kind of moments that Sivaji and Vasuki got to enact in the penultimate episode and the conclusion in the finale, should have been laced out in middle episodes as well. Aditya Haasan got many things right and had he been able to give some more depth or interesting conflict points in the middle episodes while keeping everything real, it would have been even better. On the whole, #90’s is watchable and enjoyable drama from Telugu makers after a long time.
Positives:
Slice of Life narrative
Touching Moments
Ensemble Performances
Technical values
Comic scenes
Negatives:
Predictability
Lack of depth in several situations
Some moments feel dragged a little bit more
#90’s – A Middle Class Biopic Bottom-line: A Watchable Drama
Ambajipeta Marriage Band Trailer: An emotional romance drama
