TVF’s ‘Pitchers’…A superbly written and well-acted web series about the world of startups.
Type in TVF’s Pitchers on Google, and the first thing you see is it’s IMDB rating of 9.2, and right below it comments, that state that it’s the best Indian web series out there, and well…they aren’t wrong.
Where most web series fumble through the episodes trying to keep a consistent storyline, socially relevant (Hinglish) dialogues, and insert some eccentric characters or scenes that plausibly belong more in a comedy sketch, Pitchers flows, even with all of the characteristics listed above, thanks to its tight screenplay and strong plot points. In just five episodes, the show takes us through the struggle and risks of starting your own business, be it the fear of quitting a monotonous yet stable job, securing an investor or just battling the despair of ever finding success after a failure.
Naveen (a sincere Naveen Kasturia), leaves his job on a whim. He says if he doesn’t try now, he never will. First, there is an excitement, a childlike optimism in his approach to becoming an entrepreneur, but that is soon shattered when his boss Rajat, (played by Jamini Pathak,) in a devious tone (a very well written scene), first encourages him by naming his friends who have had successful startups but then starts listing random other people, all of whose startup ideas had failed to take off.
Then there is Yogi (a hot-headed Yogendra Kumar Pandey, also the co-founder of TVF), who also leaves on a whim, but for him, it is doing something together with his friends. For Jeetu (a brilliant Jitendra Kumar), it’s a harder decision to make. He has just got a promotion and has a wife, and has been saving up to buy a house. The loss of a steady flow of income and disapproval from his father scares him. Lastly, there is Mandal (a hilarious Abhay Mahajan), who joins just because he likes these guys.
Pitchers (compared to its predecessor, Permanent Roommates), has a tighter screenplay and doesn’t amble around with various ideas. There are bits that come off more like being part of a comic sketch, like Yogi’s speech to a room full of sweaty interns or the engineering student/gamer who works from a dimly lit green tinted room, but they don’t matter in front of other masterly shot scenes like Shreya (a spunky Maanvi Gagroo) and Naveen’s breakup in the supermarket, as she hands him, her credit card to pay for the groceries,
“Mere samne hero mat bano, main tumari financial situation jaanti hoon”, she mutters as she leaves. Maanvi Gagroo even with a short screen time, gets some of the best lines, and I couldn’t help smiling whenever she came on screen.
Then there is the scene where Jeetu converses with his father, as he switches TV channels, trying to coax himself to finally tell him that he has quit his job, or when the four of them sing Yahan Ke Hum Sikander, together in the car, after failing to secure a deal. Such scenes display TVF’s flair for writing poignant scenes without the desire for any drama. The dialogues are crisp too, the music by Vaibhav Bundhoo is mellow, the cinematography is a bit fuzzy at times, but it doesn’t negate the fact Pitchers is a must watch.
