Real Smriti Irani would give Tulsi Virani a tight slap

It’s odd to see Smriti Irani's Tulsi Virani in the second season of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi cry so much, and beseech the powers that be to come to her rescue.

Smriti Irani in her two avatars | X

Smriti ‘Tulsi Virani’ Irani has returned to where she always belonged. On the sets of TV series Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (Hotstar).

The show has made a comeback to the small screen, after a gap of 17 years. Welcome home, Tulsi, Shanti Niketan was missing you.

What’s changed since 2008 when it ended? Plenty.

Irani joined BJP, was a Rajya Sabha MP, defeated Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha elections from Amethi (2019) and became a senior, high profile, union minister. She has been one of the most recognized faces of the ruling party — until her defeat in the 2024 general elections. She has since then been on the sidelines of the political arena.

Now, she will be hoping the soap opera that first made her the beloved bahu of the Hindi heartland will propel her to centre stage. Will it? Let’s see.

Now a leader on small screen

Meanwhile, she’s larger than life, dominating the new season of the Balaji series, with her mere, sheer presence – dwarfing all the other characters, literally and by her screen time.

Producer Ektaa Kapoor’s Kyunki…, in its second coming, still is all about family—as it was in the first season – but now it is very much Tulsi’s family, less the Viranis. This may change as and if the soap has a long run, but for now Tulsi and her beloved tulsi plant in Shanti Niketan’s courtyard with “Thakurji’s” blessings, command the audience’s attention.

The others live in her shadow and under her watchful, loving eye. Husband Mihir tries valiantly to assert his authority when he thinks her `zid’ gets the better of her judgement but he ends up as he did before – looking boyish and years younger than her.

His youthfulness is compared constantly with Tulsi’s puffiness around the eyes, and her size – these are recurring themes of the first week’s episodes.

From the opening sequence when she sees her reflection in the mirror (in contrast to 25 years ago when she came as a new bride to the Virani home), to the weighing machine recording 80+ kg for her and a younger woman being mistaken for Mihir’s wife, the physical changes in Tulsi-Smriti Irani are frankly acknowledged.

As Tulsi says to Mihir, “…You are the handsome Papa, me a golgappa…”

Refreshing to watch a leading character readily admit to her weight problem.

Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thhi was the original ‘saas-bahu’ TV drama after its debut in 2000. Series that followed, imitated its style and content.

Current TV shows remain faithful to it: they focus on the family, saas-bahu clashes, old versus the young, love, hate and the enduring importance of the Hindu value system.

Is Kyunki… 2025 a continuation of Kyunki… 2000-2008? No.

Or, only to the extent that some principal characters return: Tulsi, Mihir, the aunts Daksha and Gayatri, Gayatri’s son Hemant, son Karan and daughter-in-law are played by the same actors as before.

What’s cooking plot-wise?

The story is totally new. When we left Tulsi, she was a grandmotherly greying lady. In the last scene, she confronts her old friend Parvati Agarwal (Parvati of Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii) and learns that her missing grandson, Parth, who had inherited grandmother Baa’s fortune, was with Parvati all the time.

On this cliffhanger, the series teetered to its inconclusive conclusion.

There is no Parvati or Parth in the new season, so far – and Tulsi has acquired black hair. Also, back then, a shaggy, unsteady Mihir (played by Ronit Roy) had periodic amnesia.

Now, Baa is seen in flashbacks, so is Tulsi’s ma-in-law, Savita – she appears as a ghost, chatting to Tulsi like old times.

Amar Upadhyay’s Mihir is liveliness personified as he serenades Tulsi on their 38th wedding anniversary at the start of the new season. And they’ve acquired three new children – Pari, Angad, and Ritik — offspring of Tulsi’s late sister.

Their non-biological status as Viranis is another theme, largely because of the wicked aunt Gayatri, who mentions their adopted status to embarrass Tulsi when Angad is wrongly arrested for a car crash that injured a pedestrian.

The plot line of the first seven episodes was largely devoted to the crash, particularly Tulsi’s reactions of grief, with scenes where she cries and collapses.

There’s also her anger against her son – she thrashes him with a broom. Yes, a jhadu. Large parts of episodes are devoted to her dilemma—to bail or not to bail out Angad.

Here, Kyunki… tackles a topical issue: Hit and run cases involving the sons of rich businessmen.

The other plot concerns Pari’s “affair’’ that is discovered when Mihir wants her to marry a colleague’s son.

These events enrage Mihir who brings up another theme of the new season: Parenthood and in particular, a mother’s responsibilities. He scolds Tulsi for the upbringing —“parvarish” – of Pari and Angad and the cunning Gayatri nastily mentions this whenever she can.

In contrast, Tulsi’s role as the primary caregiver of the entire family and the binding force of the family is continually acknowledged by Hemant, Pari, and Angad besides Mihir—when he’s not annoyed with her.

Tulsi prays to tulsi

A rather awkward subplot introduces us to Tulsi’s successor- Vrinda. The sister of a policeman who erases CCTV footage showing the real culprit of the car accident, in exchange for a bribe to pay for his mother’s hip injury, Vrinda will be Tulsi’s ‘hand of god’ and the true inheritor of her legacy.

Whenever Tulsi is in need, or appeals to her tulsi tree and Thakurji for help, the series’ theme music plays and Vrinda steps in.

Such supernatural interventions are commonplace to the series—an avowal of how Tulsi’s complete faith in God is rewarded.

Tulsi speaks to her tulsi and Thakurji, frequently. In fact, her internal monologues are at the heart of the serial. Frankly? She talks too much.

Just as Mihir’s praise of his wife, her qualities, her selfless acts would give sugar diabetes. That’s how saccharine sweet it is.

Still relatable?

Two questions.

Is Smriti Irani convincing as Tulsi and able to overcome her public profile as a politician who was constantly in the news?

Second, will Kyunki… succeed with a new generation of viewers? Well, it will certainly be watched by those who followed it from 2000 to 2008 – it has nostalgia for us, reminds us of earlier, less divisive times when family values, a joint family were the bedrock of Hindu society. It should be a hit with audiences in smaller cities where the family ties are still very strong.

But in urbanised, nuclear cities, its charm may elude aspiring young people trying to build independent lives.

As for Smriti-Tulsi, it’s difficult to watch a VPP – very public personality – who is strong, individualistic, assertive and dynamic, spending the entire time only looking after her family—her pleading with a police constable at the police station is very awkward.

It’s odd to see her cry so much, and beseech the powers that be to come to her rescue. Smriti would give Tulsi a tight slap and tell her to get up off the floor and deal with it.

The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.