By SONALI KRISHNA
Indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: After the big bang launch of Kavyanjali last week (25 January) from the Plus platform, the channel is all gung-ho about its next property in the offing titled Life Out Of Control (LOC).

LOC hits the tube on 25 February and is slotted as a Friday one-hour weekend offering airing from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm.

It is important to bear in mind here that after Khichdi, which did quite well for the comedy genre on Plus and has now extended the brand on Star One in a "new, improved avatar" titled Instant Khichdi, LOC is the second major effort of Plus in the comedy genre.

Why comedy?

Explains Star India creative director Shailja Kejriwal, "Comedies are really hard to come by. Secondly, one is always looking at providing variety and a change that is refreshing."

Friday, seems to be the chosen day as the channel believes that it is a good day to watch something light and fresh which is a fun filled entertainer for the whole family.

Although, a point in note here is that Sony's Friday line up has always been strong. Also, slotted between 8:30 - 9:30 pm is half of Sony's newest reality show titled Dance Dance and 9 - 9:30 pm being Aahat 2. Both of which have made decent openings.

The sitcom essentially revolves around a restaurant called 'St Martins Spice- Indian Restaurant', in the heart of Central London. However, there is no peace within the restaurant because of the perpetual tensions between India and Pakistan.

The tangy humour angle comes in with the head chef being Gurpreet Singh Mallik who is Indian and the head waiter, Chand Mohammed who is a Pakistani. Mallik and Chand are undoubtedly enemies who often turn the restaurant into a plates and glasses War Zone the moment tension arises between the two countries.

The owner of the restaurant, a British, Simon York is in a catch 22 situation - for all he can do is curse his forefathers for partitioning India. To make matters worse, he can't fire either of them because his clientele love Gurpreet's curries and the Moghul treatment given by Chand.

Against this love hate relationship are played out the lives of these two families from which emerge great moments of laughter at the restaurant and at home. Produced by Rajeev Mehra of Eagle Films, the sitcom casts Manoj Pawa, Chand Mallik, Tom Alter who play the main protagonists of the show.

Will this be a move to strengthen the Friday band and eat into competition? Or will for the first time Star Plus be wary about the competition's forte? Well, this will definitely be worth the wait.