Bandish Bandits -2022

Bandish Bandits is an Indian musical romantic drama series that explores the rift between classical music and popular music and their coming together. The show aired in 2020 on Amazon Prime Video and was created by Anand Tiwari and Amritpal Singh Bindra.

Table of Contents

• Details

• Story

• Release

• Cast

• Crew

• Character Analysis

• Predictions

• Behind The Scenes

• Reviews ans Ratings

• Awards

• Interesting Facts

• Conclusion

Details

Story

PlayBandish Bandits follows the lives of Radhe Rathod, a Hindustani classical singer, and Tamanna Sharma, a pop music sensation. Radhe comes from a family of musicians and aspires to be the next Sangeet Samrat in the footsteps of his mentor and grandfather, Pandit Radhemohan Rathod, a staunch classicalist. Meanwhile, Tamanna comes from an opposing world.

The two, despite opposing musical ideologies, form a duo called the Bandish Bandits and set out on a journey of self-discovery. The series explores the clashing and fusion of these two worlds and questions the divisions between classical music and pop music, primarily through the dalliance between Radhe and Tamanna.

Release 

Amazon Prime Video officially announced Bandish Bandits in 2019. The show was initially supposed to release in 2019’s final quarter, but the schedule got delayed. The series was finally released on 4th August 2020 on Amazon Prime Video; all 10 episodes streamed on that date.

The series was officially renewed for a second season in September 2020. In December 2022’s last week, the debutants and lead actors Shreya Chaudhry and Ritwik Bhowmik released an Instagram video to tease the second season of Bandish Bandits. Details about the release date, however, are not yet available.

Cast

• Ritwik Bhowmik as Radhe Rathod

• Shreya Chaudhry as Tamanna Sharma

• Naseeruddin Shah as Pandit Radhemohan Rathod, Radhe’s grandfather and mentor

• Rajesh Tailang as Rajendra Rathod, Radhe’s father

• Sheeba Chaddha as Mohini Rathod, Radhe’s mother

• Kunal Roy Kapur as Arghya

• Atul Kulkarni as Digvijay Rathod, Radhe’s estranged uncle

• Amit Mistry as Devendra Rathod, Radhe’s uncle

• Rahul Kumar as Kabir

• Tridha Choudhury as Sandhya Shekhawat

• Rituraj Singh as Tamanna’s father, Harshvardhan Sharma

• Amrita Tanganiya as Radhe’s grandmother

• Shashi Kiran as Munshi Ji

• Dilip Shankar as Rajaji

• Meghna Malik as Avantika Sharma, Tamanna’s mother

Crew

• Director – Anand Tiwari

• Creators – Anand Tiwari and Amritpal Singh Bindra

• Producers – Dimple Mathias and Pranati Nagarseth

• Composers – Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, and Loy Mendonsa

• Cinematographer – Sriram Ganapathy

• Editor – Ajay Sharma

• Singers – Jonita Gandhi, Shivam Mahadevan, Armaan Malik, Pratibha Singh Baghel, Javed Ali, Mohammed Aman, Farid Hasan, Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty, Mame Khan, Shankar Mahadevan, Shreya Sondur, and Ravi Mishra

• Lyricists – Tanishk S Nabar, Divyanshu Malhotra, and Sameer Samant

• Writers – Amritpal Singh Bindra, Anand Tiwari, Adhir Bhat, Kaviraj Singh, Lara Chandni, and Shruti Madan

• Production House – Still & Still Moving Pictures

• Art Director – Deepak Mestry

Character Analysis

Radhe Rathod

Radhe Rathod, played by debutant Ritwik Bhowmik, belongs to the prestigious Rathod gharana of Hindustani classical music. He’s been mentored by his grandfather and Sangeet Samrat Pandit Radhemohan Rathod, and Radhe aspires to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. Radhe is talented but hesitant as he struggles to meet his grandfather’s high standards.

His burden is worsened by the declining legacy and fortunes of the Rathod gharana; his father has taken huge debts, while his uncle meets ends by singing ad jingles. When he meets Tamanna, the pop YouTube icon, Radhe is promised instant fame and fortune, but for that, he has to go against the ideals of his grandfather.

Despite that, he goes on to form a classical-meets-pop duo with Tamanna named Bandish Bandits, and they belt out an instant hit. However, Radhe struggles to balance his newfound career with the stern expectations of his grandfather, who expects Radhe to sing only classical music for the Rathod family.

Tamanna Sharma

Tamanna Sharma is a big-city girl and an up-and-coming pop YouTube sensation who landed in Jodhpur after her most recent track couldn’t be as big a YouTube hit as her producers would have liked. There, she meets Radhe, and she sees an opportunity to revive her fortunes by teaming up with him.

Tamanna is bold, confident, and a go-getter. She dreams of collaborating with an international pop icon, and she feels the duo with Radhe is her ticket. While she’s at times reckless, she’s brought back to the ground by her manager, Arghya, played by Kunaal Roy Kapur.

Pandit Radhemohan Rathod

The guardian of the Rathod gharana, played masterly by the talented Naseeruddin Shah, is a stern, traditional musical maestro. He believes in the purity of classical music and imposes similar standards on his grandson and student Radhe.

Radhemohan is also a disciplinarian and is unwilling to compromise with the Rathod legacy by going mainstream and hence depends on the patronage of Jodhpur’s royalty, despite the sinking fortunes of the family.

Predictions

Season 1 sets the stage for a budding romance, a hearty family drama, and a rivalry between Digvijay and Radhe. The first season also hinted at the pressures of pursuing classical music dedicatedly for years in the age of YouTube, when overnight success is the norm.

In season 2, Pandit Radhemohan is expected to be an even more complicated character to deal with, as he lost his hearing at the end of season 1.

Digvijay Rathod, the rival of Radhe and abandoned son of Radhemohan, will probably have more involvement in the next season as he vouches not to accept his defeat to Radhe.

Tamanna and Radhe will probably realign in season 2. Tamanna is expected to be a stronger character in the next season as she leaves Radhe, probably to improve herself and not depend on Radhe for their duo’s success.

Further, there were quite a few cliffhangers in the first season that will probably be addressed in season 2. Audiences can also expect some storylines that were not adequately dealt with in season 1 to be explored more in season 2.

Behind the Scenes

Bandish Bandits’ filming in the desert was initially scheduled in mid-January 2019. However, due to delays, the entire cast had to shoot in April, with temperatures touching 45°C on average.

Reviews and Ratings 

Bandish Bandits has received mixed reviews from critics. While many have lauded the show for reviving a conversation around classical music and that there doesn't need to be any friction between classical and pop music, others have critiqued the show for weak writing. The show has also been appreciated for its stellar soundtracks, composed by Shankaar-Ehsaan-Loy in their first web series venture. 

Bandish Bandits has been rated 8.6/10 on IMDb and 4.9/5 on Google Reviews.

Awards

Interesting Facts

Most actors in the series were trained in Hindustani classical music before shooting began. They also had to learn the basics of all the instruments they had played in the series.

Show creator Anand Tiwari revealed that they had written the character of Pandit Radhemohan with Naseeruddin Shah in mind.

Conclusion

Bandish Bandits is a refreshing take on romance and an essential piece of work at a time when classical music is slowly losing its currency. The theme of adapt-vs-perish makes for a brilliant reflection on the condition of classical art in the face of overnight fame.