Hello Bachhon

To be honest, I went into this show because of Vineet Kumar Singh, In and As Alakh Pandey, who is world-famous as Physics Wallah, the teacher whose one-point agenda was to teach, baaki sab baad mein. Directed by Pratish Mehta, and written by Abhishek Yadav, Vernaali, Sandeep Singh Rawat, Hello Bachchon puts its love for Physics front and centre. In these times, when the importance of scientific temperament itself is under such pressure, to have a series outline its beliefs so clearly is heartening.

Hello Bachhon (“Hello Children”) is the perfect example of how not to tell a real-life story. It’s also the perfect example of how not to tell a story. And how not to tell. And just how not to. Based on the life of Physics Wallah (PW) cofounder, YouTuber and EdTech star Alakh Pandey, the TVF-created series unfolds like a 5-episode-long corporate video that, at its best, becomes an unwitting Shark Tank parody. Why not just make a branded documentary with fictional recreations instead of a chatbot-coded dramatisation with zero curiosity and project-graded nuance? What is the point of using fiction when every line sounds like a motivational quote, every character sounds like a brown-washed hologram, every scene looks like a live-action brochure, every student storyline feels like a reality-show montage, every exchange has the depth of an Amar-Chitra-Katha-esque moral lesson, and every note looks designed to romanticise middle-Indian aspiration and the predatory education empire? I can safely say that the Hindi biographical drama has reached its nadir with Hello Bacchon, a series I could’ve watched on mute and been none the wiser. Sincerity has never felt so insincere.