“Tu kya hai? (What are you?)”
Often India’s young working class asks itself that question when it wakes up in
the morning to get ready for work. “What are you doing?” it wonders in front of
the mirror. Few have the courage to come up with an answer. Most just tuck in
their shirt and continue with the drill.
But
then, Pitchers, the web series by
YouTube humour-heavyweights The Viral Fever (TVF), isn’t about most
people. Yet somehow, it is about everyone. Everyone, who is tired of his or her
job, everyone who wants to quit and everyone who wants to start afresh.
Pitchers, a reference to pitch - a talk given to persuade
someone to buy what you’re selling, and also to the large jug that holds
your brew, is a show about four friends who have quit their jobs to work on
their million-dollar idea, their ‘startup’.
Naveen,
Jitu, Yogi and Mandal have high-paying jobs. What they also have is an idea, a
dream -- to start their own company, to be masters of their will instead of being
slaves for their employers. And it all begins at a bar when Naveen, whose
brainchild the idea for the startup is, gets drunk and is inspired by the words
of his senior and mentor Bhati, an entrepreneur. “Tu beer hai,” Bhati tells
him, “aur
teri company, bottle.”
That’s
when Naveen decides to pop out of the bottle and quit his job to work towards
his dream. His friends, who trust him blindly, quit their jobs without batting
an eye and follow Naveen into the unknown.
Perhaps
that’s how the show’s theme can be described best – a venture into the unknown.
The
five episodes of season one follow the four friends’ through their struggles,
from soaring baby corn prices to rejections from investors to fund their
startup. Encouraged by making it to the finals of NASSCOM Product Conclave, the
guys invest all their time and money into their idea.
Jitu,
played by the brilliant Jitendra Kumar, is the coder. He juggles his married
life, a tyrant and disapproving father and marathon coding sessions for their
product.
Naveen,
played by Naveen Kasturia, is the team leader. He is committed to see them
through the storm and is ready to sacrifice anything for his startup and to
reach ‘where magic happens’. Naveen is the one who takes on the heavy task of
making all the important decisions for their product. He is also the one who
adds an emotional touch to the show.
Yogi,
played by the TVF’s
founder Arunabh Kumar, is the team’s armour. Yogi quit his high-paying MBA job
in a second to work on the startup. He is often abusive and brash and always
acts the tough guy. But the team needs his brains as much as it needs his
brawn. He is the guy who gets shit done.
This
brings us to Mandal. Abhay Mahajan, as Mandal is the heart of the show.
Brilliantly acted, Mandal is the guy who ties the team together. He is the guy
who always cheers them on and picks up the pieces when things are falling
apart. Like Mandal says in the season finale, “I am a zero. But, when I get
behind these three, their value increases tenfold.”
The
show is brilliantly written and acted. The casting, done by a fellow TVF member Nidhi Bisht, works
well as the four friends seem very real and raw. It’ll be unfair to
categorise Pitchers as a buddy-comedy. Of course it's
funny and is about friends, but so are other shows, such as Baked, on
YouTube. But where Pitchers stands out is in its intellect. It’s
very intelligent yet never comes off as pretentious. It never overdoes the
buddy-comedy thing and avoids clichés.
Probably
one of the reasons why each episode of TVF's Pitchers has more than a
million views is because the Indian audience has been craving for a
show like this, one that takes its viewers seriously. The show has also been ranked in
IMDB's Top 250 TV list
at rank 50.
At
about 40 minutes each, episodes are crisp and the entire season can be
binge-watched in a single day on the TVF Play website or on YouTube. A must watch, Pitchers, simply put, is
miles ahead of the curve.
P.S.
- We hope there is a season two.
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