Jiji Maa Review: A repackaged tale with decent performances

Jiji Maa is the latest offering from Star Bharat. The show brings a heart warming tale of sisters love and bonding. The sisters live for each other’s happiness. They have lost their mother at a tender age. Since then, the elder sister Phalguni becomes a motherly figure for the younger one Niyati. Phalguni also becomes Niyati’s friend for life.

Though thick and thin, Phalguni does everything to get proper food, clothes and necessities for Niyati. She works day and night to meet the day to day expenses. Phalguni pampers Niyati with bundles of love. She educates Niyati. Phalguni stays illiterate to make Niyati go forward in her life. The sisters get a shocking turn in their life, when Uttara Devi starts troubling them to seek revenge.

Main Characters:

Uttara Devi:
Uttara Devi is all made of ego. She is aggressive, revengeful and an arrogant lady. She is a loving mother for her sons, but a cruel minded woman for others. She stays in her own richness and pride. She doesn’t tolerate anyone commanding her. She does much charity to keep her name high. She runs Rawat group of industries. She loves her elder son Suyash over everyone. Uttara develops a hatred for Phalguni since their first meet.

Phalguni:

Phalguni is a simple, down to earth, caring, loving, emotional and a hardworking girl. She has all the qualities of an ideal life partner. She is nurturing as a mother and friendly as a sister. She raises her younger sister Niyati as her own child. Phalguni’s simplicity makes everyone like her. She is a favorite in her locality. She is very helpful. Though, she didn’t get educated, she masters many talents. Time has taught her many lessons in life. Phalguni believes in being positive. Phalguni doesn’t trust rich people easily. She feels rich people are just meant to fool the poor.

Suyash:

Suyash is a simple and sweet guy. He is Uttara Devi’s son. He is super rich, but doesn’t throw any attitude around. He loves to pass time in a friendly way with his factory workers. Everyone loves Suyash’s down to earth nature. Suyash has his own ethics and mindset. He is not egoistic like his mother. He likes a simple life. Suyash falls for Phalguni’s simplicity and goodness. He loves his younger brother Vidhaan. Family means everything to Suyash. He respects all relations.

Cast:

Dishank Arora as Suyash Rawat
Tanvi Dogra as Phalguni Purohit
Bhavika Sharma as Niyati Purohit
Shubhashish Jha as Vidhan Rawat
Rajeev Paul as Jayant Rawat
Rajesh Balwani as Uttara Devi’s manager Shom
Pallavi Pradhan as Uttara Devi Rawat

Story So Far:

The story presents a poor family comprising Phalguni, Niyati and their mother. The girls have lost their father. Their mother works hard to fulfill their necessities, if not dreams. Niyati makes wishes for an icecream and toys. Phalguni is seen much sensible since young age. Phalguni makes stories and tries to divert Niyati’s mind. Phalguni takes care of Niyati all the time, when their mother is busy getting money to meet their needs. Their mother stitches clothes to earn money. They still find tough to manage all of their expenses. Phalguni’s love for Niyati assures their mother that Phalguni will always look after Niyati.

One day, when Niyati gets adamant to have a Kulfi, their mother gets some money and goes to buy a Kulfi for Niyati. She meets with an accident. The girls see their mother dying in front of them. Their mother takes a promise from Phalguni that she will always take care of Niyati as a mother. Phalguni promises her mother. Their mother asks Niyati to call Phalguni Jiji Maa from now on. Phalguni gets many responsibilities on her shoulders. She doesn’t lose courage. She takes care of Niyati’s every need. Phalguni does much work to earn a living. Few years pass. Phalguni and Niyati are seen as grown ups.

Uttara Devi is introduced as a rich classy lady. She plans to go to a temple. Many preparations are done at the temple, since Uttara is going to do the first Maha Aarti. The temple flag cloth gets torn. Pandit gets ready to pay much money to get someone to stitch the cloth. Phalguni takes the work so that she can buy books for Niyati’s studies. She climbs the temple building to stitch the flag. Phalguni does a daring act. She gets applauded by many. She manages to do the work. Niyati asks her not to take such risk again.

Uttara’s family is seen. Her son Suyash loves her a lot. He doesn’t let her step down in dirt. Suyash keeps a hand under her feet. Uttara feels proud to have a doting son like Suyash. Uttara’s husband Jayant and other son Vidhaan understand Uttara’s dislike for the poor. Phalguni gets busy in decorating the idol. Uttara comes for Maha aarti. She gets to see Phalguni doing darshan before her. She gets angry. Uttara then does the Aarti.

Uttara gets stuck in traffic. She asks the driver to take the big car through a narrow lane. An old man gets hit by her car. Uttara doesn’t care. Phalguni scolds the driver and Uttara as well. She finds Uttara is at fault. She daringly asks Uttara to apologize. Phalguni forms a majority with the people. Uttara unwillingly apologizes. She starts hating Phalguni for this day, when she had to leave her car for the injured old man and walk in the dirty lanes. Phalguni’s righteousness makes Uttara revengeful. Suyash bonds with the factory workers. He dresses like a worker to look one of them. Suyash sees Phalguni helping kids. He falls in love at first sight.

Phalguni happens to meet Suyash. She gets mistaken that he is a driver. Phalguni tells him that rich people can’t be trusted. Suyash acts to be poor in front of her after hearing that she can just trust the poor. Suyash likes her thoughts and simple nature. Uttara angrily burns the car in which the old man was taken to the hospital for aid. She aims to ruin down Phalguni’s life.

Our Take:

The show has close to reality characters like Phalguni and Niyati. Even the rich brothers Suyash and Vidhaan have scenes where siblings bond is seen. Phalguni’s character is sketched beautifully. The transition from a sister to mother is nicely shown in the initial episodes. The show has nothing much to offer concept wise. It can just be watched for the actors who deliver their best to make the show look apt. Leads chemistry can be seen in upcoming episodes.

Dishank and Tanvi’s pairing looks fresh and appealing. The background score in their scenes takes viewers in Ghajini’s romance zone. Phalguni and Suyash’s love tale is adapted from Ghajini. Even then, their scenes are fun to watch. Pallavi Pradhan as Uttara Devi deserves a mention to stand out by her unique styling. She portrays grey shades superbly. The USP of the show remains the high emotional factor.

Overall:

Jiji Maa is a simple family entertainer. It has a good dose of family drama, plotting, emotions and romance. The concept is not new, but looks good by the decent performances by the cast.

Our Rating:

2.5 out of 5

Feel free to post your reviews in comments below. All off-topic comments will be deleted.