Cheesecake review: Go for this dessert only if you are a dog lover

Cheesecake
Cast: Jitendra Kumar, Akanksha Thakur, Mahesh Manjrekar
Director: Palash Vaswani

Cheesecake, as the name suggests, is sweet and dense, enough to improve your mood and suffuse you with golden-hued happiness. To make things even more saccharine sweet, Cheesecake is the name of an adorable golden retriever who brings two hearts together in this eponymous show.

With so much going for it, it is sad indeed that Cheesecake -- the show, not the dog -- is a victim of average execution. The MX Player original and a TVF creation still manages to tug at the heartstrings of dog lovers who can spend the show time oohing and aahing about the gorgeous golden retriever.

 Watch Cheesecake trailer

Cheesecake is about a couple who grudgingly offer home to an abandoned dog and eventually realise that it’s their marriage which needs fixing as it is crumbling brick by brick given their disparate schedules. The show begins on a promising note with a software professional named Sameera (Akanksha Thakur) sharing her appraisal and salary woes with her sister at a bar. She scores with her monologue about her office, which many will be able to identify with. She compares her life to that of a dog who, unlike them, is not dependant on its surroundings. She breaks the myth of being an independent millennial as she reminds us that one’s dependent on friends or partner for a vacation and on the boss for better pay check and a promotion.

Jitendra Kumar and Akanksha Thakur with the abandoned dog in a still from Cheesecake.

The show takes us inside the life of a millennial couple. Always connected to work, Neel (Jeetendra Kumar) and Sameera barely find time for each other, their frustration often spilling over their love life. Monotony rules as the two sit together at the breakfast table, barely exchanging a word. They chose to bounce off their thoughts with their colleagues or sibling but not with each other. The two are hardly on the same page, often exploding when they talk to each other.

It is the dog who fills the void in the relationship. It brings calm and peace to their home but is the couple ready for the added responsibility? Do the problems that come with it really worth a few cute moments? Though in a mundane manner, it hints at how accidents and coincidences are nature’s way of checking on them if they are ready.

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Akanksha Thakur and Jitendra Kumar and in a still from Cheesecake.

Amid a few cute moments involving the ball of fur, Cheesecake turns preachy and borderline boring. After a breezy start, abrupt cuts in between leave the viewer puzzled. The characters look half-baked and performances fail to convince you either. Jeetu bhaiya, a known name on the digital platforms, delivers a rare dud.

Dog lover or not, you only watch to know the fate of the furry animal in need of a perfect home. Just like the couple realises that the dog they so eagerly wanted to get rid of has actually brought them closer, you realise it was worth it only when it ends. It concludes with a message about how dogs also mirror their masters just like kids do and can sense the true feelings of its master. Does a failing millennial relationship needs only a dog-shaped crutch? Think.

Author tweets @ruchik87

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