Hello World is a workplace drama released by the streaming platform Zee5 on 12th August after the success of their former drama web series Recce and Maia Neela Tank. The show is helmed by Sivasai Vardhan Jaladanki with Aryan Rajesh, Sadar, Ram Nitin Nayan Karishma, Sudarsan Govind, Nitya Shetty, Nikhil V Simha and Anil Geela in titular roles. Each episode spans about an average of 35 minutes, with a total of 8 episodes.
8 budding professionals; 80 story arcs; but an endearing tale of the corporate world and how to navigate it!
-Hello World Review does not contain any spoilers-
Hello World takes us through the lives of eight young, aspiring but weighed-down-by-their-circumstances individuals who get hired by a huge IT corporation as software engineers. This job offer acts as a sigh of relief that only lasts a couple of seconds before they’re thrown down the spiral of a corporate ladder that’s oil-ridden. How they manage to go above and beyond what is expected of them while keeping their personal life and dreams on hold forms the basis of the storyline.
The show, of course, had a couple of stereotypical tropes, from wishful mentors, a rivalry that dates back years, couples trying to find their way to each other and a solid climax that binds everything together. Even though you knew full well how a story arc was going to pan out, you never reached for the cross button. The story was engaging not because of the plot line but the actors’ due diligence towards their craft.
Major inspirations from the real corporate world were depicted, almost as a warning to budding professionals, that you will always find a superior who is hard to impress, your personal life might be in shambles, but your peers will be there to support you, or a handful of mentors willing to go out of their way to teach you about work and life will always be present.
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The dramatisation sequenced in some episodes were some pills a little too hard to swallow, like the one where Raghav, one of the seniors, didn’t visit his home for 20 days due to his commitment to a project, leaving his family unattended. Another instance is when the employees hack their own server to speak to the director of the company. To fill the space of an antagonist, Hello World used Debashish, Raghav’s former best friend turned rival. The reason for him to turn his back on Raghav was too futile and abrupt for me to consume.
While the director and writer tried to expand the audience’s horizon of what a corporate life commands, the show failed to create any sense of urgency, investment or impact because of convenient resolutions in the face of challenges.
The Problem:
The show felt extremely rushed, and the overload of story arcs, all infused in a single 30-minute episode, worsened the output altogether. Dealing with so many characters is a huge gamble, one that not every writing room can handle. Although all the characters were equally alluring, we never got a chance to invest our emotions into them. Their struggle was depicted only through the surface. Hello World tried to show too much in too little time. OTTs have been employed primarily to explore the nuances of any given character in depth, but Hello World failed to capture the essence of the same.
What I Liked:
Telugu office dramas have seldom taken precedence over other genres. It was a challenge, but Telugu producers took a chance to provide a unique and deeply rooted representation of people who form such a huge face of our country.
The show understands what true diversity in terms of characters means. All 8 main protagonists hailed from diverse backgrounds with a different understanding of what life is. It was refreshing to watch a diverse group of people thrown together, not indulging in bigotry or elitist behaviour.
The last episode, although wildly rushed, did provide a fatal observation. It spoke gravely of the work-life balance today’s generation has failed to assume. Hello World questioned the starry-eyed attitude of millennials towards hustle culture and showed them what is equally important: family.
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The Highlight
I was eager to know how the kitchen scene in Prardhana’s house would be executed. My heart almost sank when only the girls entered the kitchen to help her out, but the men came, and they saw, and they conquered. Representation and reflection of society in any form of entertainment is a crucial aspect many productions fail to recognise. I am glad Hello World wasn’t one of them.
Verdict
Despite the lack of engrossing drama or fueled characters, Hello World deserves applause for its representation of the corporate world through the eyes of youngsters thrown in two the reality of life, one they are not prepared for. As this is a feeling majorly all millennials face after college, it would resonate and teach many.
Hello World is streaming now on Zee5.
As the description said the Director trying to show lot in little time. The theme is interesting but very poor direction.
Good part is all actors did best.