Sumeet Raghavan, known for playing Sahil in Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai looked back at Indian television’s classic sitcom that set a benchmark in its two season run.
Sarabhai first premiered on the television in 2004, and quickly rose to the occasion for its crisp humour, pitch-perfect performances and brilliant screenplay. Written by Aatish Kapadia and directed by Deven Bhojani, this cult comedy also starred Anupamaa actress Rupali Ganguly, along with Ratna Pathak Shah, Satish Shah and Rajesh Kumar. Sumeet, who played the elder son of the family, revealed how Rupali’s beloved character of Monisha was a reflection of her real personality.
Sumeet calls Rupali a ‘punching bag’
Sumeet said in an interview with Pinkvilla, “Rupali is our punching back.” The actor added that despite all the teasing, Rupali was a sport, and took every joke in her stride. “Even if she’s doing Anupamaa today, we pull Rupali’s leg as much as we did then. She was doing Sanjeevani back then in 2005. When she was cast, Aatish was so clear in his head that the kind of melodrama she did, she has to do just that over here. There she did comedy when she had to be serious. She has to do exactly that over here. She used to get angry and he said Sanjeevani was a comedy show! We say this even now that you do amazing comedy in Anupamaa (laughs).”
Sumeet and Rupali played onscreen couple where her Monisha was a motormouth woman trying to save money at any given time. Because of her middle-class ways, she was always on the wrong side of her mother-in-law Maya, a high-class woman who lived an extravagant life.
Rupali and Ratna Pathak Shah are real-life ‘chal and cheese’
“Ratna Pathak might look like a disciplinarian, but the more you get to know her, you realise she’s quite fun-loving. Rupali and Ratna ji shared the make-up room. And as much prim and proper Ratna ji is, Rupali is opposite. She’s Monisha in real life. Her side of the room used to look like a bob just dropped! They were chalk and cheese. Even if Rupali becomes Anupamaa or whatever, she’ll remain Monisha!,” Sumeet revealed.
Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai 3?
Despite the show going off air post its season 2 in 2017, the Sarabhai team has continued to stay in touch and do regular meet-ups. Infact any click from their reunion takes minutes to go viral, infusing nostalgia in the audience. Though Sumeet agrees their get-together trigger a fresh rond of rumours for a season 3, he clears the point.
“After you achieve one thing, it gets difficult to emulate it again. We made 10 episodes in 2015 and even if you compare that today, people say ‘who wali baat nahi hai'(the magic is not the same). Hence, no point tampering with it. I’m of that opinion. Taj Mahal can only be built once, even if you have the same sculptor,” Sumeet said.
The 54-year-old added, “There was so much to identify in season 1, right from Mona Lisa painting, to the clock, pillars to the colour scheme of red and blue, it was such a South Mumbai house that in season 2, people started missing that. Such was the impact of Sarabhai season 1. So, whenever we have talk, I tell them let’s just leave the idea. Let’s just enjoy what we created.”
Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai followed the household and lives of the Sarabhais, a quintessential upper-class Gujarati family living in the upmarket neighbourhood of in South Mumbai.