TVF has understood it's audience and has for some time been able to dig in content that the youth can gobble up, feel accepted and exclaim, "Waah, TVF!". From Kota Factory that presents the story of a IIT JEE preparation in Kota to its new series in Aspirants which presents the emotions of the candidates of one of the world's toughest exams - UPSC. It's a good premise and has been created with a flashback and back theme in which the story in both the time lines are driven by the other.

The writing's crisp and the dialogues it entails are relatable. Music is apt and editing acceptable. Actors have done justice to the script. And the director has been able to string the story together for long enough to keep an average audience engaged. And for sure, a lot of hard work must have gone into it. So, it's commendable. The only thing lacking is the story. The story is dramatic but lacks emotion.

TVF's Aspirants revolves around the theme of an exam but it doesn't convey the psychology of an aspirant or the society he or she survives. It fails to convey the situation's high stakes. It misses an opportunity to capture the frustrations, the anxieties, the depression and the constant fears of inadequacies and fears of non-acceptance that resides in an Indian child - no matter what or how much he or she achieves. It fails to mirror on the hypocrisy of a society which functions on the strength of a collective but shuns out any individual that doesn't meet the exceptional standards into oblivion. An education system which supports this regressive thinking of the society and kills dreams, aspirations and creativity of a child while marking their success or failure on parameters of numbers and putting hands up in case it breaks one into killing one self. And I know you can't make it all gloom and truth is stranger than fiction. But that should come as a disclaimer, else our short sighted, low attention, victimised youth will take it as a whole truth, which it clearly is not.

TVF have missed an opportunity here but who cares, what matters is that the content sells and they are deservedly on route to getting 10M subscribers.

So, Dear Reader, I would recommend this series only as a passing view or may be when you have time to kill but if not, may be pick up a book and give it a miss. Also, if you are enticed by the IMDB rating, and see 9.5+, understand that this is an inflated rating by an emotional Indian audience and is not a barometer for the significance or quality of the art presented.