The new daily show on Zee takes on saas-bahu sagas in more ways than one

At last, there's a respite from sniveling housewives and manipulating in-laws. Kittie Party, the latest offering from Zee, is not just about bored rich hausfraus splurging their excess cash on the peculiar Indian phenomenon called the kitty party.

Slotted in the post dinner time slot of 10 pm, it is pitted against Star's domestic epic Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki and is the diametric opposite of that saga of long suffering womanhood. Shobhaa De's incisive pen has created eight women who are catty, full of gossip, often hypocritical and crafty. What sets these well-heeled women apart from their counterparts at Kahaani is their closer association with reality. De has sensitively brought out their honesty even as she brutally exposes their frailties, their obsession with class and their weakness for the rich life.

The show itself is a breath of fresh air on Zee; and for the channel struggling for a stunner that can take attention away from the all-pervasive Balaji soaps, Kittie Party is the perfect repartee. De herself has told the media that Kittie Party was a gut reaction to the 'retrograde serials currently on air'. So, despite Zee's Gharanas and Kohi Apna Sa's that are me too shows trying to ape the Star formula, Kittie Party, along with Love Marriage that premiered a few days ago, and the forthcoming Lipstick that promises a similar unbeaten track, could well be the signature tune Zee could be humming in the near future.

The first two episodes were gripping not just in terms of storyline, but in terms of acting and direction as well. Veterans like Poonam Dhillon, Maya Alagh, Kavita Kapoor, Achint Kaur and Deepshikha sashay through their roles of rich women, professionals in their own right, who share a rare camaraderie when they meet up for their monthly kitty party. De's racy plot, combined with some deft direction ensure that the viewer isn't tempted to reach for that remote. Classy, realistic sets and mellow lighting add to the ambience. The men in this serial make rare, secondary appearances, the show is clearly about women of substance. All the eight central characters are well equipped to carry the show on their shoulders, provided the story does not fall into the trap of merely tracing rich socialite lives.

Producer Manish Goswami's Siddhant Cinevision has left no stone unturned to give the show top notch production values. The look as well as the background score is of a uniformly high quality.

One area where the serial might face a problem is in its metro-centric theme which prove an impediment in reaching out to viewers in smaller cities with more traditional moorings. If the serial crosses this "sociological" hurdle then Zee may well have a big winner on its hands.


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