S PECTACULAR IN PARTS , IF YOU FORGET HISTORICAL ACCURACY B ANAL TAKE ON INFIDELITY

guided by an environment that fosters an aggressive protest against domestic treachery.

In the desi adaptation, Meera's grievance against her husband Akarsh seems unconvincing from the outset. For starters, the setting Coonoor seems like the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else. The narrative deliberately chooses to belittle

Meera's suspicion by perceiving it as paranoia and then twisting it around in a cheesy way to trounce the viewers' expectations. The plot is mired in absurdities and the build-up towards Meera's revenge is scarcely fodder for a solid suspense story.

Not that the series is bereft of all merit. The two principal performers try hard to anchor the unbelievable goings- on (at one point in the plot Meera sleeps with a family friend just to get even with her husband). Both Rasika Dugal and Purab Kohli are actors who bloom in delicacy. The sledgehammer drama of Out Of Love leaves the players out of breath. Rasika is particularly wheezy when made to perform melodramatic scenes. Sadly, melodrama is the need of the hour here.

While the talented Soni Razdan is wasted in a role that requires her to look as distressed as one would be after binge-watching this series, Anjan Shrivastav's return as a disgraced drunken doctor is the highlight of the show that begins promisingly but quickly plummets into a perverse theatrical treatment of in delity and revenge.

Subhash K Jha