Tuition Ke Baad: A Beautiful Tale of Friends

In the midst of all the serious series’ coming our way in the year 2021, Rusk Studio and Binge kickstarted the new year with ‘Tuition Ke Baad’, a light-hearted, entertaining, teen rom-com revolving around the love and the lives of four school-going teenagers. Aakash Kumar and Kshitiz Sudhakar, the creators of the show, excellently timed its release, as sweet love-friendship stories are never out of our wishlist. Featuring young talents of YouTube and Instagram influencers such as Abhishek Kapoor, Sanyam Sharma, Mugdha Agarwal, Ritik Ghanshani, Suraj Bhan, and Kanika Allagh, ‘Tution Ke Baad’ is a perfect plot to reminisce our tuition times. The times when all we did was gossip with friends, teeny weeny studying and wait for that one face to show up every day.

Set in a typical old constructed building, two rivalry Physics tuition posters could be seen. Onto the classroom with the loverboy Aashiq played by Ritik Ghanshani dreaming about the dream girl of the class, Sneha played by Mugdha Agarwal. Aashiq’s unrequited love for Sneha leads the four friends, him, Sholay played by Abhishek Kapoor, Jattenburg played by Sanyam Sharma, and Tantrik played by Suraj Bhan, to clash with rival gangs, party bouncers, khadoos tuition teachers, and ultimately the story culminates in them fighting among themselves for the love of Sneha. The twist lies in Sneha falling for Aashiq’s best friend, Sholay. At this point, the series becomes a clash between yaar versus pyaar. The eternal dilemma of choosing between the two is beautifully portrayed. The show’s beauty lies in the perfect balance of light-hearted comedy and some intense life and death (or at least what may seem like that for a couple of teenagers) scenarios.

Let’s shed some light on the good aspects of the series. Shall we?

Dialogues: Writer Shivam Sharma has done a wonderful job with the writing of the series. The dialogues have an appropriate amount of punch to them with a blend of emotion and teen conversation feel to them. But the show-stealer, hilarious dialogues are of Chulbul (Kanika Allagh) and Tantrik throughout the five-parter series. Shivam has been successful in adding an essence of drama to the flow of the series.

Cinematography: We mostly remember any cinema/series through the photographic memory it creates with its cinematography. And after having watched ‘Tuition Ke Baad’, you will definitely hold on to certain scenes and specifications visible if not at the centre of the scene, taking adequate attention. One such scene that cinematographer Darshit Gupta aptly captured was the name of the dhaba where they used to sit and make plans- Fight Club Dhaba. Even the opening scene where Aashiq is imagining Sneha has an added effect of romance to it. And the fight between the rival gangs and them is a rain sequence to build an intense ambience.

Background Score: Any movie or scene is incomplete with the sprinkle of pertinent music reaching the viewers. Having said that, the background score used in this rom-com series does justice to the plot. The soft melody used to describe the fondness and love of Aashiq for Sneha is that very tune that plays in every lover’s heart when they get a glimpse of their first love. Apart from that, the timing of the background scores remains apposite around the series.

Editing: The interesting editing of the series by Rony Dsouza definitely makes it a cakewalk for the audience to engage in the lives of the cast and also stay invested in the plot.

Cast: The cast for ‘Tuition Ke Baad’ is indeed the quintessential cast. The lead characters- Sanyam Sharma, Mugdha Agarwal, Ritik Ghanshani, Suraj Bhan, and Kanika Allagh were remarkably well cast for their roles but somehow Abhishek Kapoor stood out with his serious, yet emotional, loving feel to it. And a role that doesn’t take up much space but makes the character memorable is Pramod sir played by Lokesh Mittal. He aptly performs the role of a fed-up tuition teacher scolding the lost case students in his class and also the margdarshak and saviour for those students, when they needed it.

Direction: Last but not the least, director Sumit Kumar has portrayed this teen rom-com in a subtle, pleasant and engaging manner. The intensity of our first love, its rejection is captured appealingly along with the thought of highlighting the power of true friendship over any circumstances. Not to mention, Sumit Kumar has been a part of various amazing web series earlier such as Wrong Number, The Aam Aadmi Family, etc., and ‘Tuition Ke Baad’ grabs a space right on top of all of them.

Though the series was wholesome in its category, however, there are some bad aspects to it, or shall we say, the things that didn’t make an impact. First of all, the story, though a promising one, is the same story that we must have seen before. The teen rom-com brings the same plot with friends falling for the girl and then choosing friendship over love. Also, in the 21^st century, where movies and series are touching the clouds in terms of female protagonists, Mugdha is a typical beautiful girl with hundreds of fans and she is watching her aashiqs fight over her, to which her father stops her tuitions. In addition to that, the series has spent more time creating cinematic montage shots for the characters and the scenarios rather than binding the viewers in its story.

Nevertheless, this series stays a perfect choice for the young crowd out there who dream of that perfect love story and crave that group of friends. With on-point dialogues and crispy zingers, the story is a tale of friends being family and prioritizing each other above and beyond anything else. The short episodes of ‘Tuition Ke Baad’ make it binge-worthy and entertaining and is definitely a must-watch for people looking for sheer entertainment this weekend. Stream it on YouTube or Disney Plus Hotstar.

Watch the series: Here