A couple of weeks ago, yet another attempt was made to capture the supposed romance of a road trip.
At least it seemed so at first glance. In a spectacularly shot promo, The Viral Fever’s five-episode Tripling showcased panoramic shots of misty mountains, a raging river, luring sandy landscapes of Jodhpur and in the middle of it all, a brand new shiny orange Tata Tiago. As far as production values go, this web series appeared to be top-notch. No doubt because of the bountiful sponsor money at their disposal.
The show, TVF’s first attempt at a drama, asks the viewer to join three siblings on a road trip. In a moment of acute self-awareness, a voiceover calls to mind films such as The Hangover series, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara , and Dil Chahta Hai . In fact, several initial reactions to the trailer likened the series to the Zoya Akhtar-directed film; hoping it wouldn’t be the case. Others declared the attempt at original fiction to be a disguised advertisement for the automobile company. Let’s see if they hold true.
Mapping the storyTripling is director Rajesh Krishnan’s (a filmmaker known for his successful use of comedy in advertising) first foray into long-format content. “I was interested in moving to another avenue in terms of storytelling,” Mr. Krishnan says. “For any production of this sort, you’re just doing disaster forecast management from the time the shoot starts.”
While he’s not nervous about his handiwork, Krishnan is satisfied with how they managed to circumvent problems during shooting. “You have to improvise,” he says. “That there will be trouble is a given and you have to be prepared with plan B and C.”
These included placating curious villagers looking for a fight or even avoiding mishaps when rumours of their beef consumption were rife in some locations. “You have to diffuse a problem in the way it doesn’t recur the next day. You’re shooting in Rajasthan’s villages where I doubt people have electricity. We changed the ecology of the place.”
The concept of the show itself was unique enough to lasso in its lead characters. Sumeet Vyas, an oft collaborator with TVF (previously acting in Permanent Roommates ), plays Chandan, the divorced eldest sibling. Jobless and homeless, he returns to India to seek solace in the comfort of family. “Arunabh [Kumar, founder and CEO of TVF] wanted to do something on a road trip and he asked me to write something,” says Vyas. “ Mein hi pak gaya woh idea se , everyone’s doing something about road trips with friends.” Siblings, then it seemed, was a much more favourable contentious subject for their show.
Vyas brought in his friend Akarsh Khurana to help write Tripling . Khurana says, “I would be lying if we didn’t borrow from our siblings’ relationships.” On the biggest obstacle of creating characters and conflicts, he says, “The hardest part was to keep it real and quirky and find that tone for the show. It’s really easy to go over the top with emotions and family drama. We wanted the problems to be real and [to deal with them] in a real way.”
Part of the cast is Amol Parashar, friend of Kumar and a fellow IITian. His character, Chitvan, is a young DJ (here’s hoping real musicians don’t get offended by Parashar's fleeting attempt at spinning tunes). In any case, the baby of the family lacks an objective and an aim, the clichéd afflictions of a pampered child — a stark contrast to his oldest brother. “Sometimes you get out of touch with your siblings, but the main conflict is that these people don’t know what’s happening in their lives,” says Parashar, who is incredibly focused on his career in real life as opposed to his character.
Completing the trio is Maanvi Gagroo (previously seen in TVF’s Pitchers ), alliteratively named Chanchal, who is married to some sort of a prince in Rajasthan. Her addition to the road trip involves a confrontation resulting in her fleeing, all decked-up, right before a party. “My costume was so elaborate and thick, we couldn’t turn the AC on because of the sound and I was sitting there melting,” says Gagroo, alluding to the hardest part about shooting a road trip-themed show.
Hype and hoopla One episode out, here’s what we know so far: three siblings, Chandan, Chanchal and Chitvan, are forced to get in their Tata Tiago. We don’t really know where the road takes them, but the journey does include Mumbai, Jodhpur and Manali as of now.
Thankfully, the car doesn’t appear to be the superstar of the show. Krishnan says, “I think the writing was very clever and at no point was there ever the intention of gaadi ko ghusao (push the car in the frame).” Krishnan, who is satisfied with the representation of the car, adds, “It’s been organic and there were no efforts to do a wink-wink nudge-nudge thing to look at the car.”
Within the 21-minute duration of the first episode, the show has cleverly managed to reveal facets of the characters, and avoids getting trapped in a uni-dimensional limbo. For instance, Chandan is awarded a hefty amount as alimony as he was cheated on.
And while the humour may have hits and misses — Chitvan’s ditsy forgetfulness (attributed to his affinity for mind-altering substances) can induce eye rolls — the show genuinely has funny moments. An example is the altercation between the brothers, where they rumble and tumble about without actually throwing any punches.
Most importantly, Tripling can capture a viewer. At the end of the episode, you don’t know how the 21 minutes went by. Here’s hoping the next four episodes exceed expectations set by the première.
Triplingwill air every Sunday on tvfplay.com
