Tamanna Review: Apt concept backed by brilliant performances

Star Plus’ Tamanna brings a story of a girl’s dreams and passion for cricket. Dharaa loves to play cricket and made it her first love till she was a little kid. Her dad Deepak wanted to make a cricket career, but dropped his dreams to support family financially. The show brings a fresh concept of a women cricketer, with her struggles, sacrifices and endeavors to achieve her dreams.

Dharaa lives with her family. Her dad is the biggest supporter and her coach since childhood. While her grandmother Baa is against Dharaa’s cricket fervor. The family has contrary opinions about Dharaa’s cricket career and then a strong opposition by the groom’s side goes ahead to end her cricket dreams. Dharaa’s destiny and her journey towards her dreams form the rest of the story. Mihir gets supportive of Dharaa after their marriage, but his mum and Baa become an opposition for cricket dreams.

Main Characters:

Dharaa Solanki:

Dharaa is well-mannered, joyful, obedient, loving, caring and an all rounder in her family as well as cricket ground. She stays with her dad Deepak, mum Saroj, and grandmum Baa. She has been playing cricket since she was eight years old. Her father Deepak has trained her well, and tried to give her a childhood which Dharaa wanted. Dharaa feels blessed to have such a family, who supports her. Dharaa has a passion for cricket and does not wish to drop cricket at any cost. Dharaa finds tough to choose between marriage and cricket.

Deepak:

Deepak Solanki is Dharaa’s father. He is a supportive father, who can sense Dharaa’s sentiments by her silence. He is loving, caring and a dreamer to fulfill Dharaa’s wishes. Deepak could not make a cricket career to manage his family responsibilities. Deepak is still obedient towards his mother Baa. He leaves all major decisions on Baa, believing that Baa would think the best for them. Deepak has been Dharaa’s coach and believes in Dharaa’s extraordinary talents. Deepak is Dharaa’s confidant, guide and a doting father. Deepak feels proud to be Dharaa’s father, and has huge respect for cricket.

Baa:

She is Dharaa’s grandmother. She is idealistic, strict, disciplinarian and caring lady. She is overprotective about Dharaa. She wants Dharaa to get married at right age so that Dharaa gets a good groom. Baa feels cricket is not for women. Baa feels bad to get Dharaa married and break her cricket dreams. Baa makes Dharaa leave cricket and gets a nice proposal for her. Baa has been Dharaa’s personal trainer in household work since Dharaa’s childhood. Baa wants to make Dharaa a perfect daughter in law and good homemaker.

Mihir:

He is a humble, workaholic, good-valued and broad minded guy. He gets to know about Dharaa’s cricket passion and gives his approval to marry Dharaa. Mihir has no objection about her passion, but leaves all the decision of future to his parents. Mihir is not much supportive of Dharaa’s dreams initially, but then supports Dharaa. He likes Dharaa meeting her just once and wants to know her better.

Cast:

Anuja Sathe as Dharaa Solanki (Female lead)
Vishal Gandhi as Mihir (Male lead)
Ketki Dave as Baa (Dharaa’s grand mother)
Kiran Karmarkar as Deepak Solanki(Dharaa’s father)
Rajlaxmi Solanki as Saroj Solanki (Dharaa’s mother)
Harsh Chhaya as Coach MM Roy
Nimisha Vakharia as Mihir’s mother
Hitesh Rawal as Mihir’s father
Harshita Ojha as little Dharaa

Story So Far:

Dharaa Solanki’s introduction and her family is shown. The family is a homely Gujarati family who finds happiness in their day to day duty fulfilling achievements. Dharaa aspires to become a cricketer and an insight about her cricket passion is shown. Her grandmum Baa is the matriarch of the Solanki family. Dharaa’s father Deepak is an obedient son, and still supports his daughter Dharaa’s dream. Dharaa gets ready to meet the guy chosen by Baa. Baa grooms Dharaa and gives a recipe of sweets to impress the guy’s family. Dharaa is famous in her hometown for playing cricket very well. She is a cricket star since she was selected in under 13 girls cricket team.

Dharaa is called by her coach as her team is losing. She gets to know selector M N Roy has come today. Dharaa requests Deepak to let her go. Deepak agrees and asks her to go, once she meets the guy Mihir and his parents. Mihir visits the Solankis to see Dharaa. Dharaa meets Mihir, a prospective groom. She tries to end up the meeting soon. She tells Mihir that she plays cricket and she wants to be a cricketer.. Mihir gets aback knowing this. Deepak then sends Dharaa to play cricket and attends Mihir. Mihir’s mother gets shocked knowing Dharaa’s cricket passion. Baa gets annoyed with Dharaa for spoiling the good alliance.

Baa confronts Deepak for supporting Dharaa. Baa and Deepak leave to meet Dharaa at the ground. Dharaa plays well to impress the selector M N Roy by her talent. She gets worried and plays a wrong shot seeing Baa at the ground. Dharaa blames Baa for ruining her career. Later, Dharaa gets to know that she has been selected in the state team. She hugs Deepak happily and breaks this news. Baa is delighted as well when Dharaa’s mother Saroj tells her that Mihir has agreed to marry Dharaa. Baa asks Dharaa to drop her cricket craze right away and prepare for her marriage. Dharaa does not want to lose this good opportunity. The family heads to a temple to thank Lord and pray there.

M N Roy visits Dharaa at her home. M N Roy praises Dharaa’s batting abilities. Deepak and Dharaa get elated. M N Roy suggests Dharaa to go for training at a cricket camp, which would help her in her career. Baa refuses for this and acts rude towards M N Roy. Deepak apologizes to M N Roy. M N Roy asks Deepak to talk to Mihir to make a final try towards Dharaa’s dreams. Deepak tells Mihir that Dharaa wants to continue playing cricket after marriage. Mihir leaves the decision on his parents. Mihir’s mother refuses to allow Dharaa to play cricket after marriage. Mihir’s mother opposes Dharaa’s cricket dreams and asks Deepak to rethink about the alliance. Having got this answer, Baa gets more firm on her decision to get Dharaa married soon. Dharaa’s cricket career gets at stake.

Dharaa gets upset with Mihir, whom she met once and asks Deepak how could Mihir decide her future. Deepak tries to console Dharaa. He gets upset recalling little Dharaa’s dreams and how he is failing to fulfill Dharaa’s dreams. He recounts the story of his life to Dharaa, saying Baa’s struggles in raising him, his father’s demise and quitting of cricket. He tries to explain to Dharaa about the careers of women cricketers, which ends within 10 years. He asks her to take a wise decision thinking of long run. He explains her that marriage is life long relation and future is shaped by it. He leaves the decision to Dharaa. Dharaa gets thinking of her life, family and cricket.

Dharaa decides to continue to play cricket. She remembers her childhood when her father, Deepak taught her to play the game. On the other hand, Baa used to teach eight year old Dharaa all the household chores. Baa was always against Dharaa’s cricket playing, sensing that this game is turning into passion in Dharaa’s life. Dharaa started taking cricket very serious. Deepak wanted to give Dharaa a good childhood, with fun and play along studies. Dharaa joins Deepak in the game, and the team mates praise Dharaa’s playing ability. They ask Deepak to bring Dharaa to play always.

Dharaa tells Deepak that Baa has taught her to make rotis and shows him making perfect round rotis. Dharaa keeps Baa happy by obeying her well and learning things taught by Baa. Baa still opposes cricket which hurts Dharaa. Dharaa cries and asks Deepak to convince Baa for cricket playing. Deepak gets sentimental and teaches Dharaa to bat. He jokes about Baa being a hitler. Baa hears Deepak and yells on him and Dharaa. Baa tells Deepak that she has seen a passion for cricket in Dharaa’s eyes and worries that this passion will ruin Dharaa’s life. Baa asks Deepak not to encourage Dharaa’s passion.

Our Take:

Well, this show has a fresh concept with an amazing cast. The performances by the actors looks so real, that one can just watch the show for the natural feel. The sports notion in the story add wonders to the concept. Cricket is loved by millions, and this show just gets the right link to connect with the masses. The show brings an inspirational story wherein, a father encourages his daughter to relive her dreams. The talented actors are the USP of the show for filling life in their characters. This is a finite series, so without dragging.. the story is going on well. Good screenplay, uncomplicated liners, fresh appeal, cricket passion and natural portrayals. This show has it all. Anuja Sathe shines as Dharaa and with the stellar supporting cast Kiran Karmarkar, Harsh Chhaya and Ketki Dave, its an added plus. Harshita Ojha needs a mention for playing little Dharaa’s role superbly. The characters are sketched beautifully and with a balance. Vishal Gandhi as Mihir will be seen more in coming track. The leads were seen in just one scene and had a slow and rocking chemistry. The story will connect with women well, as it is close to reality.

Overall:

Dharaa’s struggles to make her cricket dreams turn true after a long break by her marriage and then divorce makes the concept more emotional. Dharaa goes through an emotional breakdown and then gets self encouraged to give her cricket passion a kick again. This show is really a promising one, with a great opening this week. With inspiration, motivation, determination, passion, the show has everything to make you engrossed. The concept is nicely executed. Star Plus made a great attempt to conceptualize cricket in well connecting fiction. This is a good watch certainly, without any disappointment or lacking points.

Our Rating:

4 out of 5

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