When a Hindi web series is a hit with the audience, there comes a tendency to remake it in a regional language. And the remake of the hit Hindi series Bandish Bandits follows suit with an adapted version in Telugu as Jagamae Sangeetham (Prime Video).
While Bandish Bandits was set in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, Jagamae Sangeetham moves to the city of Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh. So, what happens when the worlds of traditional Carnatic music and Western-influenced pop music collide in this scenario?
At the centre of this music drama is Balu (Akshay Lagusani), the grandson of celebrated Carnatic musician Vedantham Shankara Shastri (Prakash Raj).
Balu is being trained by his grandfather to carry on the family legacy, but with some caveats - that Balu reject all forms of Western musical influences and not sell his music for profit. The young man adheres to his guru's wishes, but when he ends up meeting pop singer Pallavi (Sushmita Shetty), his outlook slowly starts to change. Balu is now conflicted as to whether music is an art that is meant to be selfless and not sold, and whether musicians should not change with the times.
Despite his confusion, he decides to take the plunge and collaborates with Pallavi on a song that turns out to be a superhit. He impresses upon her that his identity should never be revealed to the outside while he continues to train under his grandfather religiously.
Balu's family - unbeknownst to him - is facing its share of issues in that his father Sudhakar (Shiju) is riddled with financial debts, his grandfather's pension has been stopped, the house could be auctioned off at any time and the fact that there's another rightful heir to Vedantham Shankara Shastri. As Balu gets more involved with Pallavi and eventually falls in love with her, he tries to help out his father financially through his pop music career.
Then enters the estranged son, Thiagaraja (Srikanth Meka), who challenges Vedantham Shankara Shastri, stating that he is the rightful heir to the family's music legacy. The Sangeet Bharati competition and who'll win the title is what the eventual story leads to, and also whether Vedantham Shankara Shastri lets go of his ego and accepts that musical legacies and music evolve with time.
Now, Balu is forced to step up and protect not just the musical legacy but his family as well. This throws up an interesting paradox for Balu, who's trying to create an independent identity for himself in a new world on one hand, while the grandfather is determined to protect the family's pure, 'unpolluted Carnatic music' legacy on the other. This is the crux of the generational conflict in this series, but sadly, it is not explored deeply in this series.
The traditional versus pop music conflict is explored very superficially, using the romance between Balu and Pallavi as the vehicle that makes the two different worlds collide. There are many subplots added to make the story engaging, but again they just graze the surface of issues. The series tries to be a musical drama, a romantic drama and a story about the old versus new all at the same time and ends up getting diluted at the end of eight episodes.
Even the characters are not written with enough nuance or strong emotional arcs. Balu, for instance, is someone who just listens to what everyone tells him - first his grandfather, then his girlfriend, and so on. He doesn't have a mind of his own and is unable to stand up for himself, which makes it difficult to empathise with him when he wants his own identity - he's not willing to fight for it but wants it to be handed to him.
Balu's mother, Saraswati (Madhubala), too is shown as meek and subservient to the patriarchal family despite her musical talent and the quiet strength with which she holds the family together. The writing doesn't give her agency or emotional depth to offer another meaningful perspective in this family. Some of the other characters in the series, like the two beggars and the curly-haired friend of Balu's who've been added for comic relief, are, in fact, not funny. The music by Vishal Chandrashekhar is good, and he has tried to elevate the series with his compositions. The final musical act should be the series' big emotional pay-off, but it felt a little underwhelming.
Producer Sushmita Konidela has ensured no expense was spared as far as the production values are concerned. However, adapting a hit like Bandish Bandits to Telugu is a tough task given that Telugu cinema has some great films that revolve around Carnatic music like Kamal Haasan's epic Sagara Sangamam and Venkatesh's Swarnakamalam.
One thing that the series got right was the casting of Prakash Raj, Srikanth Meka and Madhubala, as they bring considerable gravitas to their roles. Akshay Lagusani and Sushmita Shetty are sincere, but their roles don't make a lasting impact on you.
Directed by Palnati Surya Pratap, Jagamae Sangeetham's writing is the biggest letdown, making the series feel surprisingly dated despite its contemporary setting and polished production values.
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Prakash Raj, Meka Srikanth, Madhoo
