Dil Bole Oberoi Review: Keeps up Ishqbaaz’s charm

Star Plus’ next big show Dil Bole Oberoi is Ishqbaaz’s spin-off. Something that was not seen on any channel till now. Ishqbaaz’s characters got continuity in Dil Bole Oberoi. The spin-off started very well, with the same effect that Ishqbaaz left in its first week. Though, Ishqbaaz looked lavishly hyped initially and characters took some time to enter hearts, this show does not have to work too hard, as everything is already known. Its a bonus after Ishqbaaz. Omkara’s character had less scope in Ishqbaaz, while viewers wanted to see more of his life and love story. Dil Bole Oberoi focuses on Omkara and Rudra, and their love stories, interests and destinies.

The show started with Omkara landing in Bareilly and coming across his love interest Gauri Kumari Sharma. There happens to be an evil villain Kaali Thakur, who conspires to marry Gauri. Kaali’s wife attempts suicide seeing her house shattering. Omkara develops a dislike for Gauri, assuming Gauri is at fault. The track also has Rudra and Soumya meeting in a flight for a common friend’s engagement.

Main Characters:

Omkara Singh Oberoi:

Omkara was once a believer in love and relationships. He has turned bitter since his father Tej Singh Oberoi decided to divorce her mother Jhanvi. Omkara lost all of his ethics, goodness, sincerity, and ideal beliefs. Still, Omkara has a heart of gold. He respects women. He has turned into a shrewd businessman. He has one thing in mind, that’s to show Tej Singh his right place and secure Jhanvi’s life. Omkara is engaged to Svetlana. By the need of hour, Omkara marries Gauri to save her from angry villagers.

Gauri Kumari Sharma:

Gauri is a simple, sweet and smart girl. She is Bareilly’s Chulbul Pandey. She is filmi and big fan of Salman Khan. She is bold and righteous. She does not feel scared to speak out what’s right. She stays with her stepmother, whom she loves like her own mother. Gauri believes love is like pure worship. She is a devotee of love. Gauri has her own set of fundamentals in life. She likes to live each day as it comes and with a smile. She is very much positive and clean hearted soul.

Kaali Thakur:
He is an evil landlord of Bareilly. He is married to Jhanvi Thakurain. He does not hold any good virtue. He believes in keeping women captive like animals. He disrespects women and relations. He has least interest in doing any good deed. Kaali is such businessman who can do any crime to pull in profits in his pockets. He stays with his two brothers. Good deeds are not defined in his dictionary. Kaali desires to marry Gauri. When Gauri manages to escape, Kaali determines to kill Gauri.

Rudra-Soumya:

Rudra and Soumya parted ways much before. Rudra is in his usual flirtatious and carefree self, while Soumya still holds her simple yet strong persona. Rudra does not want any problems in his family because of his marriage with Soumya. Rudra’s stand on his marriage has upset Soumya. Their marriage does not mean anything to Rudra. Soumya started developing feelings for Rudra. Soumya left home to solve Rudra’s problems. She wishes Rudra’s happiness.

Cast:

Kunal JaiSingh as Omkara Singh Oberoi
Leenesh Mattoo as Rudra Singh Oberoi
Neha Lakshmi Iyer as Soumya
Shrenu Parikh as Gauri Kumari Sharma
Nakuul Mehta as Shivaay Singh Oberoi
Surbhi Chandna as Anika
Mahesh Thakur as Tej Singh Oberoi
Mreenal Deshraj as Jhanvi
Siraj Mustafa Khan as Shakti Singh Oberoi
Nitika Anand as Pinky
Navnindra Behl as Kalyani Singh Oberoi
Reyhna Malhotra as Svetlana Kapoor
Subha Rajput as Priyanka Singh Oberoi

Story So Far:

The story begins in Bareilly. Omkara comes to the city for a land deal. Omkara informs Shivaay that he reached the place but land deal will take some time. Omkara is shown the land and then taken to the haveli to meet the landlord Kaali Thakur. Omkara unknowingly drops his phone, which is picked by a bubbly and sweet girl Gauri. Gauri tries to return the phone to Omkara, but he passes ahead. Gauri answers Anika’s call on Omkara’s phone. She bonds with Anika by her genuine and honest talk.

Gauri enjoys her life to the fullest. She spreads happiness in little children’s life. She dances with the kids near the temple. Meanwhile, Kaali Thakur plans to get married to Gauri. He pays hefty amount to her greedy aunt and asks her to convince Gauri for marriage by using Gauri’s ill mother. Aunt takes Gauri’s mother and leaves her midway. Kaali has an argument with his wife Jhanvi Thakurain. She asks him not to do wrong with her. She threatens to end her life. Kaali asks her to go ahead and relieve him of her burden.

Jhanvi feels shattered seeing her marriage on verge of breaking. Kaali hurts her. Omkara happens to hear Jhanvi’s screams. He gets to know about her, and touches her feet regarding her as his mother Jhanvi. Omkara meets Kaali and talks about the land deal. Kaali asks him to pay thrice, as the land belongs to him and his other two brothers. Omkara agrees to pay triple amount just to get the land for building a five star hotel. He gives advance cheque to Kaali. He asks Kaali to evacuate the land soon. Gauri’s mother meets with an accident. Gauri rushes to save her mother, and reaches late.

Gauri then takes her mother to hospital, where she is asked to pay medical expenses. Gauri plans to earn 10000 rupees in allotted time, by her strong devotion and faith. Gauri’s aunt refuses to help her financially. Gauri goes to earn money by her shop. She sees the shops getting shut and place getting evacuated. Gauri refuses to shut her shop as its about her mother’s life. Omkara asks Gauri to leave the place. She refuses to obey him and tries selling the puja items at an discount. Omkara tells her that he has bought the land. Gauri answers that Omkara did not buy her. She talks of everything happening as per belief.

Omkara regards her belief as her adamancy. Omkara breaks Gauri’s shop by dashing his car. He throws money on her face and asks her to leave. Gauri tells him that her need is much bigger than money. She goes and gets a bulldozer to crush Omkara’s car. Gauri tells him the strength of belief. She gets an order from far away temple and manages to get her mother treated. Rudra calls to talk to Omkara. Gauri answers the call and gets friendly with Rudra. Shivaay calls Omkara next. Gauri answers the call and exhibits her uniqueness by her talk. Gauri and her mother have chaat at the stall. Gauri happens to collide with Omkara.

Omkara finds his phone with her and assumes she is a thief. He demands for his phone. She asks Omkara not to jump to any conclusions without any proper knowledge about someone. She checks him to know if he is rightful owner of the phone. She realizes he is Omkara and returns his phone. She introduces herself as Bareilly’s Chulbul Pandey, Gauri Kumari Sharma. Omkara gets to know that she has spoken to his family members on his behalf. Gauri comes home with her mother. Her aunt tells her about selling her to Kaali Thakur for money. Gauri gets a big shock. Her greedy uncle and aunt threaten to kill her mother. They keep her mother’s neck near the burning coal, which makes Gauri agree for marriage. Gauri plans to run away from the house.

Kaali reaches there and catches Gauri. He asks her not to run away as they are not lovers to elope and marry. Kaali gives the shagun to Gauri’s aunt. He forcibly takes Gauri’s consent for marriage. Kaali then chains Gauri so that she does not run away. Kaali takes her with him and announces the marriage function happening next day. Omkara sees Gauri with Kaali, and giving her nod to become his wife. Omkara gets mistaken about Gauri’s character. Kaali takes Gauri to his haveli. Jhanvi misunderstands Gauri and assumes Gauri is behind breaking her house. Jhanvi runs away from haveli and sets herself on fire. Omkara witnesses the incident. He recalls the same thing happening with his mother when Tej decided to marry Svetlana.

Omkara saves Jhanvi and admits her in hospital. He gets to know Gauri’s truth to trap Kaali for richness. He hates Gauri for becoming second woman, who breaks someone’s family. He finds Gauri similar to Svetlana. Omkara visits Kaali’s haveli. He hates seeing Gauri and reprimands her for marrying Kaali. Gauri is chained and tries to make Omkara understand her helplessness. Gauri fails to take his help. He calls her selfish and greedy woman to break someone’s house for her motives. Gauri goes to tell Kaali about the marriage happening against her will.

Kaali does not care for her will. She keeps condition to secure her mother. Kaali agrees to her and calls her greedy relatives to stop them from killing Gauri’s mother. Gauri talks to her mother and assures her safety. Kaali asks Gauri to entertain his special guests in the function kept in evening. Gauri agrees to dance and acts sweet to Kaali to get his phone. Gauri succeeds to get Kaali’s phone. She calls Nahar, but could not talk. Omkara assumes Gauri’s drama to be true and hates her more. Gauri gets ready for function. Kaali asks her to dance for his friends and guests. Kaali equates her with gold and gives away the gold to her as wedding present.

Gauri performs in the celebrations. Omkara gets upset seeing the function. He had to stay back on Kaali’s insistence. Gauri gets Nahar’s call and fails to answer. Kaali gets his phone in broken state. She tries to get Omkara’s phone to call Nahar. Omkara refuses to help her. Kaali signs the land deal papers and gives to Omkara. Omkara tells Kaali that he would like to leave. Gauri’s little friends save her mother from her greedy relatives. Omkara leaves from the haveli. Gauri is brought for marriage. Gauri gets a huge shock when she gets to know her marriage is happening with Kaali and his two brothers. Pandit does her ghatbandhan with three grooms.

Gauri opposes to marry them. Kaali threatens her about her ill mother’s life. Omkara forgets his car keys and comes back to haveli. He gets the keys and does not enter the haveli to avoid Gauri. Omkara leaves for the train station. Gauri sheds tears and does not want to marry. Kaali forces her for marriage. Nahar comes and tells Gauri that her mother is safe. Nahar helps Gauri in running away. Gauri tries to cut the chains. Kaali does not let Gauri leave. Gauri and Nahar injure Kaali and manage to run away from haveli.

Rudra and Soumya get invitation for Nandini’s mid air engagement by Chubby. Chubby lies to them and convinces them to come. Rudra and Soumya reach airport. Chubby does not let them meet till they board the flight. Rudra meets Nandini and her fiance Aditya. He congratulates them. A girl who is madly in love with Aditya kills the flight attendant and boards the flight in disguise to kill Nandini.

Inspector tells Kaali that Jhanvi died in the hospital and this is police case as she left suicide note before dying. Kaali asks inspector to frame Gauri in Jhanvi’s suicide case. He orders inspector to find Gauri and get her to him. Gauri hides from Kaali’s men. She reaches the train station and boards the same train as Omkara. Kaali’s men continue to look after her. Kaali asks his men to find Gauri at any cost.

Our Take:

The show is just restyled and given a new name, instead going the other way where Ishqbaaz could have been increased to a one hour slot. The concept of spin off looks fresh and attracts more curiosity. Dil Bole Oberoi looks like Ishqbaaz with different leads. Omkara and Gauri play a Shivaay and Anika combo. The settings from urban lavish homes to rural haveli is a change though. Kunal JaiSingh has hit the swag meter high, just like Nakuul did in Ishqbaaz. The show sustains the Ishqbaaz charm. There are some typical filmi moments, which hype the scenes.

Scene frames are stunning. Kunal JaiSingh and Rahul Dev stand out by their rocking performances. Background scores and musical introductions are good. Shrenu Parikh pulled her character of Gauri harder in first episode. It got acceptably appealing from next episodes. Shrenu looks stunning in the traditional attires. Costumes and haveli set are very much of Ishqbaaz style. Nidhi Uttam was okay in her cameo role.

The storyline of Gauri’s helplessness and difficulties take her ahead of Anika’s struggling story. Even then, the characters of Gauri and Anika are sketched similarly, with some personally crafted words. Shop destruction and car crush scene with equal attitude reminds of Shivika’s scene again. There has to be more of Rudra and Soumya, played by Leenesh and Neha. There is nothing new about them. Leenesh and Neha carry their cuteness ahead. Short appearances of Shivaay and Anika in between adds more interest in development of story and new characters.

Overall:

Dil Bole Oberoi is definitely worth watching. Visuals, settings and characterizations are similar to Ishqbaaz. One can’t get enough watching Kunal JaiSingh’s intense performance, where silence speaks volumes. The show is very much entertaining, and a good treat for all Ishqbaaz and OmRu fans.

Our Rating:

4 out of 5

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