BOTTOM LINE
Only Fresh Faces, No Freshness
PLATFORM
JIO HOTSTAR
RUNTIME
1Hr 30Mins [4 Episodes]
What Is the Film About?
After their troublesome Intermediate years, Sammy, Milky and Sid are all pumped up for their engineering life. On day one, Sid is instantly attracted to Goldie, an NRI girl and gifted dancer. She turns out to be his classmate and soon joins their gang. But while they are being ragged, the gang earns the wrath of a senior, Suhas, who starts harassing Goldie.
Performances
Sai Sriram Vemparaala looks right for the part, is confident and has a camera-friendly presence. The girls in the gang, played by Sindhu Reddy and Geervani Reddy, are just about okay. Anthony Karthik fails to tickle your funny bones while Bindu Madhavi, in a cameo-like role, passes muster and is expected to have more prominence in the later episodes.
Analysis
Jio Hotstar, having tasted success with light-weight weekly shows in Hindi and Tamil, is now testing this model in the Telugu OTT market. Following Vikram on Duty, the platform has come up with a breezy campus drama, Batchmates, directed by Sree Harsha Setty. With a Happy Days-like outlook on engineering life, the series focuses on the highs and lows of a group of close-knit friends.
You don’t expect anything pathbreaking from campus sagas. After all, there’s a certain universality to how students navigate early adulthood, from friendships and romance to heartbreaks and bitter banter. What matters is how relevant the story stays to the current times and the target audience (18-25 year olds) it’s trying to reach. Apart from the casting, there’s no effort to upgrade the time-tested template here.
The show has a bunch of stock characters and situations derived from similar college romances. Sid is the posh kid of the lot. Expectedly, his career-driven parents have little time for their son. Sammy is the girl with supposedly liberal and progressive parents who send her out late at night because she has a bodyguard of a guy-friend. Milky is the mass boy and the only son of a poultry farm owner.
Batchmates also pokes fun at everyday realities at most engineering colleges that promise big and deliver little. The gang finds every opportunity to bunk classes. Both boys view engineering life as an opportunity to meet their potential love interests. The clichés continue as Sid falls for a classical dancer immediately, and the senior, too, has his eyes on her (like we warned you with the Happy Days reference).
The senior is the typical bad guy who only exists to trouble his juniors and is surrounded by a group of wingmen. Though it only comes as a passing reference, the show hints at how girls and boys can never be just friends, suggesting an obvious plot progression in the platonic equation between Sid and Sammy. Packed with these stale campus story ingredients, the show offers little to look forward to.
Right before the fourth episode ends, a new girl, Jaya, is introduced, apparently belonging to a home where a conservative father is reluctant to send her to college. From the way all characters talk and behave (forget the performances) or the homes they hail from, everything appears artificial or exaggerated. Even if you do not seek novelty, all you want from Batchmates in each of its 20-minute odd episodes is some good, mischievous fun; there is no respite here.
Batchmates is neither unwatchable nor completely watchable. There is still a slim chance for it to cover lost ground in the coming weeks, though it looks highly impossible. In case you run out of options to kill time, you may give it a try, keeping your expectations to a bare minimum.
Music and Other Departments?
There is not much to write home about on the technical front. The music, by Sai Deva Harsha, is serviceable at best, offering nothing fresh or vibrant. Saiteja Kalla’s cinematography is among the show’s brighter spots: the colour palette, costumes and location choices help his cause. The crisp episodes, at around 20 minutes, make it an easy watch, but of what use are they with the shabby writing?
Highlights?
Few one-liners
On-screen chemistry between the fresh faces
Drawbacks?
Poor, old-fashioned writing
Bland execution
Did I Enjoy It?
No
Will You Recommend It?
Not unless you’re starved of viewing options
Batchmates Web Series Reviewed by M9 News
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