Meet cute shows seem to be everywhere on OTT. Earlier this year, Amazon acquired some assets of MX Player—including its MX Player app. In that deal, Prime Video India also inherited a whole bunch of show IPs in the romance drama genre. Case in point: Season 2 of 'Highway Love' which dropped last week, and this week's release 'Gutar Gu' Season 2 starring Ashlesha Thakur (remember Srikant Tiwari's daughter in 'The Family Man' Parts 1 and 2?) and Vishesh Bansal ('Asur: Welcome to Your Dark Side' and 'Yeh Meri Family').
Now if 'Gutar Gu' Season 1 started with strong echoes from Mansoor Khan's splendid 1992 film 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander', season 2 of the teen-love show, produced by Guneet Monga and Achin Jain's Sikhya Entertainment, has ended with a nod to Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol's iconic 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge' ('DDLJ', 1995).
Here's how: The Aamir Khan-Ayesha Jhulka Bollywood blockbuster had at its core, the class divide between the mega-rich students of Rajput College and Model School students from middle-class homes. One of the ways this divide played out was in a short-lived romance between Rajput girl (Pooja Bedi as Devika) and a boy from Model (Aamir Khan playing the prodigal son, Sanjay).
The contrast between Devika's family wealth and Sanjay's modest means finds a brief echo at the start of 'Gutar Gu 1', when Ritu (Ashlesha Thakur) and Anuj (Vishesh Bansal) first meet. She's just moved to Bhopal from Gurgaon and is the top student in the most premium school in the city. By comparison, Anuj looks like the proverbial frog in a tiny well, going to a local school and struggling to keep up with her protective and almost-snooty friends from the National Capital Region.
By the end of Season 2, things have started to work out for Anuj—professionally and personally. He is studying engineering in the college of his (original) choosing and is thriving in the drama society there. In the Season finale episode, there's occasion for his father (Abhhay Joshi) to tell him "jaa, jee le apni zindagi" à la DDLJ.
This symmetry doesn't seem to be a fluke or even out of place in the series. To be sure, this will be a low-involvement series for most viewers—30-minute episodes about young people navigating their first relationship and then their first long-distance relationship when they enter college in different cities. Structurally, the show is quite neat. There is a steady progression in the story, and everything moves linearly forward. The complications and hurdles are designed to bring the couple closer, even as they chart the journeys of who they want to be and what they want to do as they come of age.
Earlier this month, Prime Video announced it was merging the MX Player app with Amazon Mini TV—to further grow its advertising-supported content portfolio. Shows like Gutar Gu, then, with support from brands like Mamaearth and Dot & Key, is only likely to grow from here.
Ending of Gutar Gu 2 explained
(Contains spoilers) First, here's a very quick summary of the plot and places the couple visit: Ritu moves to Bhopal with her family at the start of Season 1. She meets Anuj at their coaching centre, and there's an immediate connection between them despite the differences in affluence. The Gurgaon girl falling for a boy from Bhopal is not without its (minor) snags. Season 1 ends with Anuj's mom finding out that he's dating Ritu - Ritu's parents already know this, and this last fact enrages Anuj's mom even more. Ritu goes off to design school in Ahmedabad, and Anuj takes admission in the same engineering college that his Dad attended, in Bhopal. There's a brief, but teary, airport scene, too - not on the runway, for that would be out of character for this show. But at the entrance to the airport.
In Season 2, Anuj and Ritu try to make a go of their long-distance relationship. There are other people who are interested in them, internships and projects that eat into their together-time, and breakthroughs in both their quests to answer, to borrow Billie Eilish's phrase, what was I made for. Anuj discovers he's a good actor, through a chance audition he goes for only because the show is in Ritu's city. Ritu finds out she'd rather be a big fish in a smaller pond than an overlooked intern in a bigger organization through a bad internship experience.
Bhopal is celebrated across both seasons - another on-trend strain in this show that follows many others that have captured love and life in Indian lanes outside the metros. Bhopal is a massive city, though, and some spots get more attention than others. For example, Manuabhan Tekri where Ritu and Anuj go to talk about all things important.
(Contains spoilers about the ending) Now, to come to the ending of Season 2: Like Bauji (Amrish Puri) in 'DDLJ', Anuj's father gives him sudden approval to follow his heart and live out his dreams. Anuj is set for Mumbai, which is also where Ritu will be to assist on an indie film project (fodder for Season 3 most likely). They are excited to be in the same city again, and especially one where Anuj will likely have more freedom to date than he does at home. But, of course, Mummyji throws a spanner in the works last-minute.
The Gutar Gu Season 2 ending reinforces some of the themes and ideas from Season 1: how Indian parents and children discuss the latter's future, whether teens can date freely and safely in Indian cities and towns, and puppy love is the same whether it's in Bombay or Bhopal. In Season 2, there are the added complications of whether a long-distance relationship between very young people can work. Season 3, too, will likely have its own set of issues for Ritu and Anuj to resolve, in 30-minute instalments you can watch on the metro ride home or when you want to watch a light but heart-warming show with little to no aftertaste.
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