Campus Diaries series review: Harsh Beniwal, Ritvik Sahore are their usual selves with an upgrade

3.5/5

Story:

Four friends sail through college life individually. They always have each other's backs but for how long will that last given the situations they are put through?

Review:

Campus Diaries, like the promos mentioned, is the story of what happens to people in college. Harsh Beniwal is still in his character like his YouTube channel shows (especially like School Diaries) and Ritvik Sahore turns the devdas without alcohol this time but is impactful. Salonie Patel tries to shine and does in a few scenes but she ends up being sidelined in the story about how the men, especially Harsh's Sudheer, feel.

The show begins with foul language, giving you a hint about what is coming ahead. It can be safely said that it is Harsh's comfort zone.

Ritvik's Abhilash is adorable since the first frame. Salonie's Sushmita is cute as well as fierce, which, honestly, is a deadly combo.

The series promotes ragging. Seeing Harsh do that sets quite a bad example. Ritvik only follows up to that saying that when many people do ragging, it sets a standard. It's tough to understand if the makers were thinking clearly while making Campus Diaries. Following the trend of reels, you hear songs in romantic situations out of the blue, making it very unreal.

Manoj Joshi as the dean of the engineering college gets mixed in the show's colour soon after his entry. His Zoya Akhtar references comes as a surprise and is hilarious at the same time.

Harsh's fans are sure to love his character in the series. He is his usual self and in fact has upped it.

Abhinav Sharma as Raghav Gupta brings a fresh perspective to the series right from his entry. His warm presence takes Campus Diaries a notch above. His character graph goes down as the episode progresses, though. Thus, it takes a lot of patience to watch him on-screen.

Srishti Ganguly Rindani as the geek of the college, Sanya, is loveable but can get irritating at times too. She preaches to her friends but because of her dorky character, the energy of the show goes slightly down.

Saloni Gaur’s Priyanka makes her entry much later in the series but barely manages to leave an impact. While she is shown as a powerful woman, you are never mesmerized or intimidated by her at any given point, no matter the situation. This is almost like keeping her in the shadows and letting her stay there, unfortunately.

The scene between Salonie and Ritvik is well executed. They show genuine friendship and love through the intense scene.

Ritvik has got stereotyped in his role as a heartbroken guy, once again. He manages to show that emotion well once again after Indori Ishq. This time he does it without the use of alcohol too. His outbreak scene is on another level too. It is loud and funny.

Abhilash (Ritvik)'s journey is shown well through the scene where he confronts what stopped him from completing college on time.

How Srishti's Sanya realizes Raghav is not the person she wants, makes up for quite a scene. This angle is toyed with throughout the show, right upto the end. While aww at first, it soon becomes just another meh moment.

Sudheer and Abhilash's scene which shows their crazy friendship is the highest point of the series. It makes you laugh and feel pity for the cute little Abhilash all at the same time.

Raghav and Choe's complicated relationship is explored well too. What follows is so sexist it is funny.

There are so many cringe moments in the show that you lose count. Raghav's behaviour with Sanya is an example of that.

Various college scenarios, right from rave parties to teenage love, are explored in the series. Every person has their own backstory and it is explored well. From Salonie's breakdown to Harsh's helplessness, the show has so much to explore and the actors perform well on it too.

There are many moments that will remind you of the Harsh from School Diaries. He still tries to show he has a tiger attitude even though in reality, he is a bheegi billi.

As expected, the series ends on a dramatic note. However, the message of friendships staying stronger than anything truly stays back with you. It is what makes Campus Diaries special but not as special as Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na.

Verdict:

Even if Campus Diaries is a long watch of nearly 7-8 hours, it has some really cool moments. It also makes you cringe at some places and other times, it makes you feel like you are watching an Instagram reel. While that proves that the series is moving with time, it does not necessarily work for the format of the show. Nonetheless, Campus Diaries picks up pace and the best part about this drama is that it focuses on the lives of the lead actors, which are all too relatable. While Campus Diaries could be better in terms of length and keeping some scenes crisp, it does the job, sometimes by making you laugh and the other by taking you on a journey.