Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt. Ltd review: Great performances make a predictable business idea palatable

Yamini Das and Amruta Subhash in 'Saas Bahu Achaar' on Zee5. (screen grab)

Scenario 1: Hollywood heroines eating ice cream from the tub, double, triple dipping a spoon to drown her sorrows…

Scenario 2: A Masterchef Australia judge comes around to check the sauce a competitor is making. He checks the consistency with the ladle and then puts it to his mouth to taste the sauce. Perfect!

Indian mothers on scenario one: Who will eat that ice cream now?

On scenario two, my mother has declared that she will never eat at the man’s restaurant, Michelin star or no. Why, you ask? All the food in his kitchen must be ‘jhootha’! The concept of ‘Jhootha’ food is not just in Hindi, it is called ‘ushta’ in Marathi, ‘engili’ in Telugu, ‘enjalu’ in Kannada, ‘eccam’ in Malayalam, and more. Then in which world are the writers of this show living? And indeed the people up the show approval ladder?

This isn't the only obvious faux pas in this otherwise sweet six-part series, but more on that later. For now, let me tell you the story of Saas, Bahu Aur Achaar Pvt Ltd, which released on Zee5 on July 7.

The super talented Amruta Subhash plays Suman - the bahu who makes the achaar. The totes adorbs dadi - who stands by Suman and encourages her in the achaar endeavour- is played by Yamini Das. The duo makes the show eminently watchable.

Suman is illiterate and now divorced from Dilip Srivastava (Anup Soni), a sales manager in Best Foods (yes, they make achaar too). Suman and Dilip have two kids: Juhi and Rishu. Juhi is preparing for engineering entrance and Rishu is at that age where he’s not old enough to play with the big boys and too old to play with his little step brother…

Dilip is now married to Manisha (played rather gently by Anjana Sukhani) who has a little boy from her previous marriage. Considering the dadi (her mother-in-law) takes pot shots at her in front of the kids, the new daughter-in-law, Manisha, does love the kids and her husband.

Now, for that list of things that don't always make sense in the show: You wonder how she and Dilip met. The show also doesn't explain why Dilip divorced Suman. You wonder why Dilip hasn’t paid any alimony to his wife but is handy with the taunts about Suman’s penury. And if you’ve lived in Delhi, you know that landlords rent out the room on the terrace (the barsati), so Suman making achaar on the terrace without the landlord asking for rent/a cut of the sales is a miracle. Why is she unable to sell the achaar through anyone except a neighbour, Shukla, who just looks untrustworthy from the get go and hasn’t given her a penny for her pickles. Is Suman naive as well as illiterate?

I want to protest for all middle-class aunties living in Daryaganj…

The show has a decent pace and there’s something so sweet about Suman, that you want her to succeed in her endeavour of selling achaar to everyone. You do facepalm when Shukla who insisted he is from the village, suddenly becomes a teacher to the women roped in to sell achaar. How does he suddenly become an expert in marketing, you wonder? ‘These clothes are called "formals" he tells Suman, and I wish the maid Manju had offered home-spun strategies to sell that achaar instead of the TVF gang trying to write a sales pitch joke scene here.

The scene with dadi and Suman selling in the bus is brilliant. They cut it short and I’m wondering who’s responsible here?

The relationship between Manisha and Dilip is whittled down to,‘Mujhe sauteli ma banna aata hai..’ (I know how to be a step mother) And you do see her put only half a gulabjamun in the children’s lunch box. But she is otherwise quite good to the step kids. So the evil stepmother trope doesn’t work.

Amruta Subhash carries the show on her delicate shoulders, emoting with her heart. You may not ever make mango pickle or worry about making ends meet, but boy, Suman’s pain and her small joys become yours so easily, you wish they would explore her character a little more than give us the superficial: those who look downwards are unhappy. Someone go beyond the homespun philosophy please? She might be the simple one, but the audience already love her. The writers need to give her a little more credit. Her easy relationship with her ex mother-in-law is so wonderful, we barely see the strain in her relationship with her daughter Juhi. This could have been very powerful. The pop psychology the doctor spins at the grandma made me want to scream: unhappy kids are not always drawn to drugs that are on cue available right around the corner. And sniffing glue / paint thinner is not a habit that can be cured by ‘staying in a loving home’…

Perhaps I’m asking for more than what six episodes can pack in but they wasted time with glue-sniffing nonsense, Shuklaji’s angry tirade at the Dhaba guys and more… The writers give all the good ideas to Suman, so the team is lopsided, isn’t it?

I tried to not bring my personal dislike for achaar into the review, but there were far too many people sticking their fingers into the achaar and tasting it for me to forget about it. But the show says households consume a bottle a month and if Amruta Subhash is going to sell it, I say, ‘Well done, girl!’ But I’m not about to become a customer. And just a small prayer to the makers: you’ve seen product testers at supermarkets, give her a small bottle she can open to let her customers have a taste, and a bunch of disposable spoons for god's sake!

P.S. I hope fervently dear readers, that you too will think before you put your fingers into the saunf/ mukhwas bowls when you leave restaurants…