SHAlINI SAKSENA speaks to the star cast and writer to find out what makes Yeh Moh Moh Ke Dhaagey different from other shows
For those watching Yeh Moh Moh Ke Dhaagey on Sony TV, the plot may appear to be familiar. Remember the movie lamhe where a much older Anil Kapoor finally falls in love with 18-year-old SrideviIJ But one is told that the similarity in this serial ends with the age difference. Here, the show is centred around a 42-year-old villager looking for a bride. To help him there is a 21-year-old urban girl.
“The difference is that in the movie, Anil Kapoor was first in love with the older Sridevi and then fell for her daughter. That was the reason why people didn’t like the concept back then and said: ‘Oh My God, first he loved the mother and now the daughter’. That is what people didn’t like. It had nothing to do with age. Yeh Moh Moh... doesn’t have this angle. If it had, it would not have worked,” Saba Mumtaz, the writer of the show, tells you.
She always wanted to do an unconventional love story — an older man falling in love with a younger woman. A concept was created with a Milind Soman kind of a person in mind and doing it as an urban story.
“I had first pitched it for Star but then Danish Khan (business head) moved to Sony TV. He remembered the story and called me to say it could go on his channel with some tweaks. Since the channel was looking to reach out to smaller cities, we created Mukhi who is from the village and the girl from the city. So, along with the age difference, geographically, we placed them in different areas and then explored what could happen when they meet,” Mumtaz says. Older man falling for a younger woman is pretty common in real life too,” she adds. “Nobody questions a George Clooney if he marries a 35-year-old woman,” she points out.
To change the setting of the show wasn't much of a problem for Mumtaz. She has many relatives in the village and makes frequent visits. Her sister is a village pradhan. To understand nuances was easy and a lot was picked up from real-life situations.
The age difference creates space to do a lot more with drama, create complex situations and conflicts. “As a writer, it gives me a lot to play with,” Mumtaz says.
Though many people love the show, she admits that the market is TRP driven and the ratings were low. So there is pressure of cater to the audience. There is need to create a daily dosage of fresh drama so that people come back to it the next day.
“If there was no pressure of catering to TRPs, there would have been better shows, better stories would have unfolded and Indian television would have been generally better,” Mumtaz opines.
Eijaz Khan who plays Mukhi, says that the biggest challenge for him was not to sound like a caricature.
“I spent a couple of weeks in Gujarat to pick up nuances of playing a Gujarati man.
The connect with a village man looking for an urban wife looks difficult. It may sound bad that a 42-year-old man has come to the city looking for a much younger bride. “In the show, my sister is pushing me to get married. But I am reluctant and will go to any lengths to avoid marriage,” says Khan who has done some negative roles as well.
“I want to be an actor first rather than a hero. I am not from a star family and nobody is going to put crores on me which is brilliant. My father is a self-made man and so is my brother. I want to do the same. Second, there is a paucity of slots. Even our Bollywood heroes do character roles. See how actors like Irrfan and Nawazuddin have changed the temperament of how we see heroes. So actors can cast themselves in a grey, positive or negative role,” Khan says.
As for the show, he says that the approach is fresh. It hasn’t been jaded with large sets and done-up women. And, it is not just about age difference or an average love story.
Niyati Fatnani as Arundhati Nanavati aka Aru tells you that the most obvious difference is the showcasing of a generation gap but somewhere down the line something clicks between Mukhi and Arundhati. “Aru is an ambitious girl. She has set annual goals. She is a multi-tasker; she has a small dupatta business and works for a matrimonial agency. She wants to buy a house and become an Ambani as soon as possible,” Fatnani says.
For her, love is about her partner not being judgmental, understanding her and respecting what she is doing, Fatnani tells you. “Aru is 21 and from Gujarat and so am I. So, it makes things easy to do justice to Aru,” Fatnani says.