Sony Television`s serial "Durgesh Nandini" started as quite a relief to the regular teary-weary serials, in order to provide a bagful of laughter and to be a light-hearted drama series in its own right. Inspired by Bengali laureate Bankim Chandra Chatterjee`s novel of the name title, this serial is produced by Shobhana Desai, who now has her hands full with "Thodi Khushi Thode Gham" at 9.30 pm and consecutively "Durgesh Nandini " at 10.00 pm. Well! That`s what we all thought! Infact, it was shortly after the much hyped conclusion of "Big Boss", that the same was replaced by Durgesh Nandini. However, it adjust seemed like-dream to all the television viewers, since the former has turned into a BIG disappointment.

The plot of the serial introduces the viewers with the city life and the family of the Shrivastava`s, on one hand and the remote country life on the other. The Shrivastava family are multi­millionaires and the sudden death of their father, creates a lot of confusion and shocks them. It is revealed that the business baron Dharamdas Shrivastava, in his will, has made a parentless girl called Durgesh Nandini, who lives in a remote village, the trustee of his entire fortune. Thus, starts the struggle between both the parties. For Durgesh, it`s a struggle to shift to the city life and manage the alien and angry rich family; whereas on the other side, it is the Shrivastava`s, who want to get rid of the village belle, who has seemed to appear from no-where and is now the custodian of the entire fortune.

It was a good concept, which included many funny scenes coupled with a touching drama, which really had something good and better to offer the audience. But, the same has failed to make any serious impact on the viewers, since it has got a lot of over the top dialogues, costumes and acting. The first disappointment came, when the protagonist was revealed in the promotions. Nobody actually thought that "Durgesh Nandini" was actually supposed to be a WOMAN! Secondly, even if she was one, the audience would like her to behave like one.

The Indian audience is so used to watching the smart, elegant and sexy stereotyped protagonists as well as the nasty vamps, that the & very fact of a tomboyish natured woman as the main lead, must have actually scared half of them away! The second most common reason being the basic idea of the serial, which has simply gone haywire. A first few episodes were very exciting for the public to watch. Then, the same seemed to be getting a bit boring. It is a regular concept that has come into picture: The rich trying to insult and swindle from the simple village girl, who instead of tolerating their hurtful advances, just `gives it back to them`.

There seems to be quite a bit of lousiness from the viewers, thinking about the cast of the serial. We cannot call it a star cast, because simply there are not any in it! Who would have even thought about a somebody named `Rinku Ghosh` as the protagonist of the serial? Then some names like Varsha Usgaonkar, Anupam Bhattacharya, Bhairavi Raichura, Rajeev Seth, and some more. Then the yesteryears always crying and sulking Beena as the mother and lastly Amit Sadh (of the "Big Boss" fame). There just aren`t any known faces who the audience would actually relate too. And whatever, the publicity the serial got, can surely be said as before the protagonist actually arrived on the scene!

A lot of viewers have compared this serial to the many famous Bollywood films; where upon, the same concept of the win of the righteous against the baddies have been repeated. One can now also see the serial running like the same Ekta Kapoor ones, where the plot remains the same, yet more and more new problems are introduced to just shake up the courage of "Durgesh Nandini". Started with a great fanfare and with an improvised look. Unfortunately, Durgesh Nandini is yet struggling to make many `fans`!