UP65 Season 2
Introduction
It is still a Tuesday and I have a surprise entrant as far as my reviews is concerned. With that, I finished watching the second season of UP65 which is now streaming on Jio Cinema. If you remember, the first season of UP65 had culminated only a few days back, and I had no idea that Jio Cinema would go ahead and release its second season back to back. Usually, there is a cooling period of atleast 6 months before its show is out with a second season. And that is what was worrysome here. The way Jio Cinema is dumping content day in and day out, there will be a time when the viewers will reach a saturation thereby leading to a fall in the number of users on the app. The strategy is honestly bizarre wherein you aren’t giving the show a fair chance to prove its mettle. Any which way, my job is to rate UP65 on its merit, and here are my two cents on the same.
Story & Screenplay
While the first season of UP65 had focused on a gang of friends and their journey through the first year of engineering, the second season of UP65 picks up from the exact same point and focuses on their journey through the second year of engineering. And given that even I have an engineering background, I thoroughly enjoyed the events of the second season as well. The main aspect of these shows is to focus on the relatability factor which would instill a sense of nostalgia. And that is what the writing does here. The screenplay standing at 13 episodes of 20 odd minutes each does make for a fun watch although my complaint of the second season continued to be the same as season one – it was a little too long.
When an individual is in the second year, you are almost familar with the college and its surroundings. And the cycle of stamping your authority or breaking the ice with your juniors continues through you. So I really liked the start of the drama with the gang getting acquainted with their juniors and guiding them through the various speeches of the professors. This particular start did tell you a thing or two about the growth of the characters which was represented well through the writing. The drama, like the first season, unfolds like a sitcom with every episode dedicated to a new incident that takes place in the college campus. And most of the events were very relatable.
The proceedings are engaging and the humour is absolutely on point with respect to the situations and the characters. I found myself laughing hysterically at quite a few places while the events at most places did put a smile on my face. The one issue that I had with this season was that the events did seem repetitive, more so because the two seasons were released so close to each other. As a result, a few episodes did drag on wherein I did feel the urge to get a move on.
That said, individually the writing still did create moments which were heartfelt and the similar incidents too did take slightly different detours which did showcase the growth of the characters. A nice little conflict was introduced towards the end that was interesting to watch with respect to the character dynamics. And it would be interesting to see the journey of the protagonists in its next season through this conflict. Overall, the screenplay here is well written and makes for a super fun watch for most parts of the drama.
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are situational and it does generate quite a few laughs throughout the narrative. The music and BGM blend well with the drama. The cinematography captures the vibes of the engineering college as well as that of Varanasi splendidly. The editing is good for most parts but at times it could have been sharper. A key aspect of the drama was also the costumes. There were two things to be kept in mind here – one was the location of Varanasi and second the college culture. And each character is given perfect costumes as per their character traits. Case in point being the character of Prasad who is given T-shirts with funny captions that resembles his character. Another character Antari is given slightly more Urban getups as her character hails from Mumbai. This contributes well to the detailing of the drama too. Director Gaganjeet Singh does a pretty good job in creating relatable moments around his characters that does result in an engaging watch which is a lot of fun to witness.
Performances
The performances are quite good by the ensemble cast. Shamim Akhtar Mallick as the owner of the mess area is hilarious despite a limited screen time. Abhishek Reddy as Pablo is pretty good in a much more meatier role as compared to the last season. Sharat Sonu as Kabadi Baba is terrific despite a limited screen time, this time around. Anmol Jyotir as Akhil(jisne 9th mein s*x kiya tha🤣) has a good screen presence and does a good job. Pragati Mishra as Shubhra is charming and does a wonderful job. Her partner-in-crime Ria Nalavade as Antari is phenomenal as well in a brilliant job done! Both of them have such well written characters that represent their growth as individuals.
Jay Thakkar(Maharaj Bro) as Mohit has his humour on point and contributes to plenty of funny moments in the screenplay in what was an excellent job done. Abbas Ghaznavi as Prasad is wonderful with his comic timing and does a tremendous job here as well. Priitamm Jaiswal is such a joy to witness, combining his innocence with a streak of bravado in a fabulous job done. And his comic timing is just so good. Shine Pandey as Nishant is sincere and earnest and does a good job in portraying the maturity of his character(relatively so as compared to season 1).
Conclusion
The second season of UP65 is as enjoyable and as entertaining as its first season with dollops of humour and nostalgia in equal measures. Available on Jio Cinema..