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Haven’t we all experienced that lovely balloon that blows to a delightful size and shape and then something happens. Poof! In a second, it bursts and there is nothing left.
That is the feeling I—and no doubt many other viewers must have—got watching the last scene of Musafir Café, a series that throughout treats human beings as identifiable people, sans any negativity, caught in relationship imbroglios thanks to the way life takes course.
Let me categorically state right away that as the story (based on a novel) kept evolving, I was drawn (which happens extremely rarely in the romantic genre) into the lives of the three protagonists, Chander (Vikrant Massey), Sudha (Vedika Pinto) and Preeti (Mahima Makwana) as if I was a silent spectator to their world. Yes, it involved me that much.
In a Bhopal café, Sudha meets Chander as a probable arranged match and they enjoy their brief rendezvous. When she has a spat with her roommate Gargi, she calls Chander at 2 am and shifts to his pad as she has no other place to go in the city. However, this stay extends for long—very long, and the two become a live-in couple who also fall in love.
Question: What spoils their romance then? Answer: Their varying professional and personal dreams and goals. Sudha, a lawyer, dreams of joining a legal firm in Mumbai and gets a golden opportunity. By which time, Chander and she have developed deep feelings. Chander, meanwhile, is the apple of the eye of his boss and is a corporate professional who is advised to move to their branch in Delhi as a promotion. But he is much more emotional and wants the two of them to marry and settle down to family life with kids.
Sudha, earlier, had come to know that Chander actually dreams of owning a café in Mussoorie, the hill resort, and has once suggested the name for it—Musafir, or traveler. People who are in the journey called Life.
The sequences are interspersed with Chander owning this restaurant eight years later, with a pretty partner, Preeti (Mahima Makwana), who shares his dream and has developed it. The café is thriving.
Past and present alternate, and soon they must come together. Chander’s dream is fulfilled. Where is Sudha now? How has life treated her? Preeti, who has a silent admirer in writer and frequent guest Rahil (Rajeev Siddhartha), is aware of Chander’s past, which he has assured her is behind him now. So when Sudha comes to Mussoorie to meet Chander one last time, she welcomes her.
Phir kya hua (What happened next)? is the most intriguing part of this two timelines saga.
Rather than tell a superficial Mills & Boon triangular romance, Musafir Café places a mirror, first in front of these three protagonists, and then to each viewer. How do we all want to juggle aims with impulses and our dreams with a practical look at ourselves? What price ambitions, happiness and its causes, limitations and our priorities? How does intense love deal with life’s realities and also destiny’s small buffets?
A masterful saga that shows that love is not everything but can yet depend on one’s perspective, Musafir Café gets its narrative bulwark with a fantastic script, terrific dialogues and powerful and lifelike performances, bolstered phenomenally by incredibly picturesque locations.
Vikrant Massey, after his recent sterling turn in Pritam and Pedro, comes up trumps again, and one can understand why he chose to co-produce this lovely saga. Vedika Pinto’s performance—diction, expressions, body language—I would say, are worthy of an award: she is incredible. Mahima Makwana’s goody-goody-gumdrops character is endearingly complementary to a now world-wise Chander. Rajeev Siddhartha as Rahil, Adil Hussain as Mark, an old Mussoorie resident who knows Sudha’s and Chander’s love story, Loveleen Mishra as Sudha’s mother and Anubha Fatehpuria as Chander’s parent, are all excellent. As Mark’s wife, Sadiya Siddiqui is good.
Ruchir Arun’s direction is noteworthy for enhancing the romantic voltage and feel-good quotient of this story. Technically adept, Musafir Café is sharply edited.
But….!
And here’s where we come to the climax. While I believe the original book had a finite end, this one goes into a needless cliffhanger! Sheesh! When will they ever learn that only a niche section of the audience will enjoy such a non-culmination, and ‘normal’ viewers will find it a sorry anticlimax to a wonderfully layered love story that is almost unique? It is the pith in the story that still gets the rating below. Had it mattered to the makers, my rating would have been higher by at least one star if they had not gone after a needless future season, which is now sure to come. Thankfully, novels don’t suffer this miasma.
Rating: ***1/2
Netflix presents Terribly Tiny Tales’ Musafir Café Produced by: Anuj Gosalia & Vikrant Massey Directed by: Ruchir Arun Written by: Divya Prakash Dubey & Sharanya Rajgopal Music: Raghav Kaushik Starring: Vikrant Massey, Vedika Pinto, Mahima Makwana, Rajeev Siddhartha, Anubha Fatehpuria, Sadiya Siddiqui, Adil Hussain, Loveleen Mishra & others
