A COMING-OF-AGE STORY WITH SOME HUMOUR BUT LITTLE DEPTH

The series has a few good performances, especially from Prajwal Yadma and Sai Ram, but suffers from ineffectual scripting and character sketches

- BH HARSH

On the surface, Home Town promises to be a slice-of-life series about a small town middle-class family, largely centering around a complex father-son relationship. The larger conflict of the show revolves around the father's sacrifices, which are being made in complete oblivion with the son's ambitions.

However, as each episode of Home Town unravels, the focus remains on the antic-riddled experiences of Srikanth (Prajwal Yadma) and his two buddies Jaggu (Sai Ram) and Shastri (Anirudh). We barely get a glimpse into the lives of Srikanth's family, which also comprises of a doting mother (Jhansi) and an obedient sister (Annie). The show feels far removed from reality in terms of how the characters respond to situations. One never fully gathers whether Srikanth's father (Rajeev Kanakala) is willingly ignorant of his son's follies, or just not smart enough to see through his ploys. Outside of his saccharine ambitions of sending his son to US for a better life, we never learn anything about him. You don't travel with these characters. In a strange way, they remain outsiders in a show that is set in their universe.