MX Player’s latest offering Indori Ishq is now streaming on the platform. The 9-episode show starring popular young actor and OTT regular Ritvik Sahore, along with Vedika Bhandari in the lead talks about young love in all its glory - from the initial mush to the later anguish. But unlike most other run-of-the-mill plots about trial and error relationships or unrequited love, Indori Ishq takes a darkish turn somewhere in the middle when Kunal realises that Tara is cheating him and his fairytale romance becomes a distant dream.
Here, check out the trailer.
The first thought that comes to mind after watching the trailer, is - what’s with India’s obsession with unrequited love? Well, pardon the cliche here, but life really isn’t fair. Most of us have been through a phase in life where we’ve longed to be with someone while the other person didn’t feel the same way. The reason stories - in both film and literature - often cover this form of one-sided attraction is because they’re oh-so-relatable to so many.
Even the Indian movie industry didn’t shy away from it. 1983’s Sadma (a remake of Tamil movie Moondram Pirai) perfectly captured the pain of unrequited love in its memorable climactic scene. 1994’s Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa had Shah Rukh Khan playing a conniving lower of sorts, who’s okay with manipulating his crush into falling for him. The words to the song Ae Kaash Ke Hum Hosh Mein Ab from the same film echo the sentiments of all who’ve spent countless hours cooking up imaginary futures with their crush. Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam is a great film, and perhaps Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s best work till date, and yet, the most memorable thing about it is perhaps the go-to anthem of all lovelorn Indians - Tadap Tadap Ke Iss Dil Se. Point is, we Indians are obsessed with films about unrequited love, because we see so much of ourselves in them.
This is where Indori Ishq gets interesting. The trailer shows that the series mainly deals with a small-town boy whose longtime crush and now-girlfriend cheats on him, which makes him spiral into an abyss of self-loathing and obsession. But it also exposes the difference in standards for men and women when it comes to being cheated on. If the genders were flipped, the narrative would most likely be about how the guy ‘ruined’ the girl’s life, because that is how society mostly reacts to such incidents. But since the ‘victim’ is a guy, he’s the loser here. The series seems to be shattering such gender stereotypes surrounding love, commitment and relationships through this modern day story.
This riveting series also stars Aashay Kulkarni, Meera Joshi, Tithi Raaj, Donna Munshi and Dheer Hira in key roles.
The 9 episodic MX Original Series is now streaming for free, only on MX Player.
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