‘Hello Bachhon’ series review: Viineet Kumar Siingh’s earnesty gets diffused in TVF’s factory-made snoozefest

With a simplistic understanding of the world that extends even to its laid-back aesthetics, 'Hello Bachhon' ends up feeling more like a mouthpiece of Physics Wallah, as it merely registers its journey from a broad perspective

At this point, The Viral Fever’s (TVF), never-ending competitive exams storytelling has become so laboriously quantitative that there is little new to say that hasn’t been echoed before. The production house has begun to function as the same mass-producing entity it has vociferously stood against in the education sector. The biting simplicity of its underdog championing has become a vicious template, much like some humble IIT coaching class in Kota, which latched on to the crony euphemism of ‘demand and supply’ and sold a dream to hook thousands under its wing. Only, the dream has lost its shine.

Collaborating with streaming giant Netflix, TVF has long shredded its own legacy of breaking the clutter. The combined experiences of its much-famed engineer-turned-creators have grown woefully stale. The outsiders have become insiders. It is a creative coming-of-old-age

A still from the show | Photo Credit: Netflix

The latest offering in the same mix is Hello Bachhon, a crossover between the remains of The Kota Factory and the emotional capacity of a CSR advertisement. Recounting the story of Alakh Pandey (Viineet Kumar Siingh), the charismatic founder of the ed-tech company Physics Wallah, the show struggles to find its footing from the start. It begins with a sentimental push as we see Alakh coming out of a hospital wearing a blood-stained tee. Knowing the world of the show, it is not difficult to ascertain what has transpired, as a student’s suicide attempt has shaken up Alakh. As a sea of other students gang up around him for selfies, Alakh dials his sister and announces, “I am resigning from Physicswallah.”

The hook is too feeble, too direct. Even the structure appears loose as the story of Alakh navigating the profit-driven ed-tech space is intercut with the lives of students he impacts with his online video lessons. From the corporate world of Delhi, the landscape shifts to a village in Bihar where two kids struggle to buy a notebook to attend their school. Their conversations, however, sound overtly adult-like, as one of them offers to leave school and shift to the city so that he can fund his friend’s education. “When one man climbs out of the well of poverty, he can pull out five more out of it,” he reasons, sounding more like a sage than a kid.

A still from the show | Photo Credit: Netflix