Doctors has soap opera level of plot developments that veer off to melodrama and struggle to keep you engaged, observes Mayur Sanap.
The first thing to note about Doctors is that this is not a medical drama.
Director Sahir Raza, along with his writing team — Shibani Keshkamat, Radhika Anand, Bharat Misra and Siddharth P Malhotra (of Maharaj fame, who also serves as co-producer here) — crafts a 10-episode drama that delves into personal equations and motivations set in a hospital backdrop with some random medical procedures and emergencies thrown around to add interest.
The story kicks off with Dr Nitiya Vasu (Harleen Sethi) entering the prestigious Elizabeth Blackwell Medical Centre (EMC) where most of the drama takes place.
She is a new resident doctor carrying her own personal agenda.
Nitiya blames EMC’s star neurosurgeon Dr Ishaan Ahuja (Sharad Kelkar) for derailing her brother Dr Dhaval’s (Aamir Ali) career by performing a wrong surgery on his right hand, which leaves his career stunted as a surgeon.
Despite her grudge against Ishaan, as they navigate the hospital’s grim realities, Nitiya begins to realise her opinion was wrong. This leads to an unexpected turn in their dynamic.
For a show that starts off as a revenge saga, the abrupt turn of romance overshadows the plot and characters that the first two episodes so nicely establish. What follows thereafter is the soap opera level of plot developments that veer off to melodrama and struggle to keep you engaged.
The show is further laced with an array of characters that highlight the trials and tribulations in the lives of these medical workers.
There’s a dorky friend Dr Roy (Vivaan Shah), an ambitious and committed Dr Keyuri (Niharika Lyra Dutt), a goofy and chatty Dr Ridhun (Abhishekh Khan), Nahida (Sarah Hashmi), and a sincere Dr Neil (Vvansh S Sethi).
But most of them behave less as professional doctors who should be focused more on their job. Instead, they tune in to the drama that is going around the hospital.
For a show that has the obvious influence of Grey’s Anatomy, there are no genuine moral dilemmas or emotional confrontations that would make any of these characters stick.
Even the whole hospital set-up looks like it was just recently visited by an interior decorator, unlike Mumbai Diaries, which at least had the authentic feel to its world.
Sharad Kelkar looks mostly bored as he plays a sardonic Dr Ishaan whose heightened intelligence leaves him with little patience for most people around him.
Harleen Sethi is a tad better in a role that gives her a vast emotional range to showcase. She is especially good in the scenes that show the interesting facets of the patient-doctor relationship.
Doctors streams on JioCinema.
Doctors Review Rediff Rating:
