Bankrolled by Annapurna Studios, The Baker And The Beauty marks the collaboration of Aha, the Telugu digital platform with the Israeli Broadcaster Keshet 12 who are the original makers of the series created by Assi Azar.
“A love story with a universal appeal comprising of beautifully crafted characters that can be rooted in any close-knit, family-focused community anywhere in the world,” is what The Baker And The Beauty is about according to Kelly Wright, the SVP of Distribution and New Business, Keshet International.
Story
Vijay Krishna Dasaripalle (Santosh Shobhan), Vikram Dasaripalle (Sangeeth Shobhan), and Meera Dasaripalle (Sai Swetha) along with parents Padma (Jhansi) and Venkat (Sreekanth Iyengar) are a happy family who owns a bakery and a supermarket where Vijay was an expert baker.
After 9 years of courtship, Vijay rejects the marriage proposal of Maheshwari (Vishnu Priya) and falls in love with the film celebrity Aira Vasireddy (Tina Shilparaj) under peculiar circumstances.
There ensues the struggle for Vijay who has to face the music from both sides. Unable to digest the rejection, Maheshwari joins Lakshmi Narayana (Venkat), the most obedient Manager of Aira for hatching a plan to get Vijay off the hook of Aira so that she can get married to her Ex.
In between, the flirting of Vicky and the escapades of Meera to find a soul mate stir hornet’s nest in the family throwing all the plans down the drain.
What happens to the love of Vijay? How did he overcome all the obstacles to pronounce his love towards Aira is the remaining part of The Baker And The Beauty.
Performances
It’s good to see veteran actor Venkat in a web series and he has not lost his charm though his character of Lakshmi provided him less scope to perform.
Tina Shilparaj was a misfit for the role of Aira and there is nothing special about this girl either in performance or looks-wise.
Santosh Shobhan has done well in a confused character that lacked depth. His character somehow looks incomplete and it should have been designed a shade better than what it was.
On the other hand, Sangeeth as a flirtatious brother has got ample scope to prove in a character that will be loved and hated equally by the audience. He has done very well to prove his mettle.
Jhansi was the pick among all other actors although she has overdone in some scenes and sounded quite louder than expected. Her Telangana slang goes well with the audience.
Vishnu Priya proved that she was a good actress and she looked more perfect in the character of Maheshwari who was in madly love with Vijay.
In other characters, Sreekanth Iyengar, Sai Swetha, Tarusha Saxena as Suseela Aunty, Kamakshi as Smrithi, and Pavani as Melissa D’Souza fail to impress in half baked characters.
Behind the scenes
The concept behind The Baker And The Beauty was good and there was ample scope to make it humour-filled love triangle. But director Jonathan Edwards faltered and dragged a simple story with unnecessary and undesirable elements that had cast a negative effect on the narrative.
The conflict of Vijay and his choices were not portrayed properly as a result, his character doesn’t get connected with the viewer. Why he rejects the love of Mahi and goes after Aira keeps flickering like a sore thumb throughout the series.
Except for a few, the dialogues or the scenes lack the punch though there was enough scope to turn the series into a breezy comedy. Some of the scenes like the one where Vicky searches for Meera in a lesbian club were too lengthy and so were the scenes in Dubai which were overstretched.
The music by Prashanth R Vihari and the cinematography by Suresh Ragutu were the bright spots in this otherwise drab series.
The ten-episode series could have been easily cut short into 5 or 6 episodes with a crisp narrative laced with good humorous scenes and punchy dialogues.
Final Verdict
The oddities galore in this whimsical love triangle is what The Baker And The Beauty is going to offer on the whole. The title and concept are quite deceptive but it lacks any emotional bonding or connection or at least some genuine humour and leaves a lump in the throat by the time one finishes the series.
Do avoid unless if you don’t have any other option.
