A Fun Ride On A Dupahiya!

Web series "Panchayat" was a favourite watch for most of us. We liked its clean humour, honest portrayal of rural life, and excellence in all departments of production. To even think of creating something in the same genre requires courage, conviction and confidence in one's craft. That it would be compared with its predecessor is a given. The makers of "Dupahiya" (Two-wheeler) have come up with a refreshing and enjoyable show in spite of this challenge.

The series is set in the fictional village of Dhadakpur in Bihar. A wedding is being fixed and the groom-to-be demands a dupahiya as part of the dowry. The fun ride on the dupahiya begins and continues in nine hilarious episodes, each marking a day in a countdown to the wedding day. Along with humour, there is suspense, thrill, song and dance, and drama; but no violence, bad words or skin show. 

The story also deals with adult literacy, women's empowerment, dowry demands, kleptomania and the bias in our society towards dark skin. But all of this is cleverly woven into the story without making it preachy or overly sentimental. The narration is fast-paced with top-notch performances from the main cast, and well-written lines delivered in the local accent. 

Sparsh Shrivastava whom we have seen and appreciated in Jamtara and Laapataa Ladies is in scintillating form. He gives an uninhibited performance doing bizarre acts. Gajraj Rao and Renuka Shahane are veterans, though Renuka appears to be a bit stiff and not so comfortable with the accent at places. The surprise package is Avinash Dwivedi, who apart from being one of the writers of the series, also plays the groom. His character, right from his dress sense to his mannerisms and his use of English words in a sentence is a laugh riot.

Most of the situations are amusing and capable of invoking laughter except the one involving Dollar, the owl. It is stretched, inane and not in sync with the rest of the story. Otherwise, most of the time it is wholesome entertainment, good storytelling and a welcome addition to the genre of rural comedy.

Dupahiya is streaming on Prime Video.