Miley Jab Hum Tum

Miley Jab Hum Tum was a show broadcast on Star One - a channel that no longer exists. Anyway, it was a fun college based show that was geared towards the youth. There was nothing ground breaking that was covered on the show but it made for a pleasant change from all the Saas-Bahu dramas that dominated the serial world at the time. I especially like the way the Mayank-Nupur and Samrat-Gunjun love stories were portrayed.

Miley Jab Hum Tum is the story of two sisters, Nupur and Gunjun and their lives when they leave their small town of Morena and head from Bombay. They come to the big city with loads of dreams and hopes. Excel College is like a dream come true for both sisters. Nupur is the older sister. She is outgoing and a go-getter. She loves challenges and enjoys being in Bombay. Gunjun is the shy, simple and naive younger sister. She enjoys the simple things in life unlike her older sister. She is an introvert and doesn't make friends easily. At first she is a bit uncomfortable in Excel, but slowly she makes a place for herself.

Miley Jab Hum Tum is also the story of the Mayank and Samrat. Samrat is the quintessential 'cool dude'. He is the basketball champ of Excel and enjoys the attention that he gets from all the girls. He is a fun-loving and easy-going character to the casual observer. He struggles with abandonment issues due to his troubled relationship with his parents. His parents divorced when he was young leaving him to grow up on his own. Mayank on the other hand is the college topper. He is guy who is bound to be successful. He is focused and determined to do well and make an impression. His professors love his dedication to academics. Fun and easy-going are not attributes that would be associated with Mayank.

Every thing changes when the lives of Mayank, Samrat, Nupur and Gunjun intersect. As the age old saying goes opposites attract, which means that Samrat is paired with Gunjun and Mayank with Nupur. Samrat and Gunjun first meet at a party hosted by Dia. She hosts the party hoping that the girls will be overwhelmed by all the pranks she plans for them and go back to Morena. But the opposite happens, Samrat and Gunjun form an instant connection while Nupur enjoys the attention. Samrat enjoys making Gunjun uncomfortable. He loves teasing her and constantly messes with her. Poor thing! On the other hand, Nupur constantly makes fun of Mayank for his no-nonsense attitude. She even secretly nicknames him Sadu which means bitter. Mayank realizes that he has fallen for Nupur and tries to hide his feelings for her. When he realizes that she too has feelings for him, he formulates a fool proof plan to make Nupur confess her feelings. Samrat and Gunjun's love story was not as straight forward.

Just like Mayank, Gunjun realizes that she is in love with Samrat first. Samrat always makes Gunjun feel special. He always encourages her to step out of her shell and showcase her talents. He helps her compete in the college talent competition after he hears her singing secretly in the music room. He even helps her with a RJ contest. Every step of the way her reminds her that she is special and talented. Slowly Gunjun begins trusting Samrat and caring for him until finally she realizes that she is in love with him. Just when she is about to tell Samrat how she feels, she finds out that Samrat wants Sheena to be his girlfriend. Sheena, at first was very sympathetic with Gunjun's feelings but in reality she had no regard for Gunjun. Sheen tried to create many misunderstandings between Samrat and Gunjun, but their friendship proved to be too strong. Samrat always felt like Gunjun was too good for him. He never thought that someone like Gunjun would ever fall for him. When he finally confesses his feelings to Gunjun, her happiness was boundless!

With the love stories on track, the show needed some masala. That's when Adhiraj and Suhani step in. As I mentioned earlier, Samrat didn't have the best relationship with his parents. Unknown to his friends and the audience, Samrat had a little sister named Suhani. She went to live with her mother while Samrat stayed with his father. After their parents' divorce, Samrat never heard from Suhani again until she decided to join Excel to mend their broken relationship. Adhiraj comes to Excel with a hope of winning the heart of Nupur. His family and Nupur's family arrange their marriage. And in perfect arranged marriage tradition, nether knows what the other looks like. So just as fate would have it, when Adhiraj enters Excel, he bumps into Suhani who tells him that her name is Nupur. And viola a new love story is created. Adhiraj and Suhani's love story adds a whole lot of drama in Gunjun's and Nupur's love stories.

As I said earlier, I really enjoyed the way all the love stories in the show were portrayed. There was passion and romance without it looking cheap or over-the-top. I especially enjoyed watching a show that was based on college life. I could relate to pretty much every character in the show. For example, there's always a diva in every college and in Excel it is Dia, Nupur and Gunjun's cousin. I liked the way the show subtly challenged traditional values without making a huge issue out of it.

Even though I enjoyed MJHT tremendously, I did not like the way the creators tried to transition into the new season of the show. I hated the idea that one of the main characters, namely Nupur, was going to be removed. It seems like every show on Star One that transitioned into a new season at the time had some sort of bloody end planned for its main characters! Nonetheless due to fan uproar, Nupur was written back into the show and all was well. The last scene of MJHT was especially unique. I loved the way it summed up the individual character's view of what their college life was about...