Soppa Nasta Kahi review: This pretentious, predictable relationship drama is a letdown

Mayuresh Joshi's Soppa Nasta Kahi is a pretentious and predictable relationship drama that tries too hard to be out-of-the-box but fails because of ordinary daily soap-like execution.

Soppa Nasta Kahi is the story of a woman who is in love with two men at once and has to choose one. Instead, she comes up with a unique solution — living with both in the same house.

The series opens with Anuja (Mrunmayee Deshpande) and Sumeet (Shashank Ketkar) discussing their wedding which is scheduled to take place the next month. We learn that they are madly in love with each other and their family is also on board with this union, in fact, they are even more excited than the couple.

From booking of the hall to finalizing of the menu with the caterer, everything is being taken care of, when tragedy strikes. Sumeet is diagnosed with liver failure and will require a liver transplant. Even with all the treatment, the chances of survival are slim. With a heavy heart, Sumeet begs Anuja to break up and let him die in peace.

 The story moves forward three years, and Anuja is happily married to music composer Sameer (Abhijit Khandkekar). Sameer is the ideal husband in every sense. He loves Anuja wholeheartedly. He even celebrates her ex's birthday with her. Everything seems to be going fine for husband and wife when Anuja's past comes knocking on the door.

On paper, Soppa Nasta Kahi's plot seems interesting; at least it generates curiosity. Being a web-series, you expect the makers to delve deeper into the topic and explore some taboo subjects they couldn't have on TV or in cinema. But nothing of the sort happens.

The bigger issue, however, is the execution. Director Joshi wants to underline every emotion, every minor change in expression. For the most part, you feel like you are watching a daily soap, with that overdramatic music and ridiculous long pauses. This television soap-opera-like direction is more evident in the first three episodes. Thankfully in the last couple of episodes, director Joshi seems to have realized that he is not making a show for TV and gives us some poignant scenes.

There are moments in this series when the story shines through, despite all the effort to clutter it up with unnecessarily drawn out melodrama and a loud background score to underline what our main leads are feeling, in case we fail to notice them crying. But those moments are few and far between. One such scene is when the trio sits and decides to discuss how to deal with this issue. On this rare occasion, writer-director Joshi beautifully explores what each character must be going through. But apart from this scene, there is nothing in this two-and-a-half-hour-long series to talk about.

Even the performances from the two male leads, Ketkar and Khandkekar, are ordinary. The blame must also go to the writer-director because their characters barely have any attributes. Deshpande alone brings the much-required depth to her character with her fine performance. Her commanding portrayal of Anuja is the only saving grace of this show. There are a few supporting characters, but they don't serve any purpose besides sermonizing on relationships.

Without giving out a spoiler, Soppa Nasta Kahi is not really a sad story of heartbroken people. On the contrary, it tries to give a positive message that just as a mother loves all her children equally, a person can be in love with two people at the same time. But it fails miserably in the execution.

Planet Marathi OTT is now streaming Soppa Nasta Kahi.