Pivot. No, not the one you guffawed at in the Friends episode. Loosely explaining, in startup jargon, pivot is a shift in strategy or in product to accommodate a change in industry or customer preferences. The concept shapes a major plot point in Pitchers S2. In one of the episodes, Naveen Kasturia, as CEO Naveen Bansal, explains to his primary investors the necessity for his company to pivot. Co-founder Yogi (Arunabh Kumar) offers statistics: “According to a survey 13 per cent of startups fail if they don’t pivot at the right time. “And as per the same survey 25 per cent of them fail because of a pivot gone wrong,” comes the retort.
The story of Pitchers is similar. The TVF show became a rage when it launched in 2015. It had the right tone, a group of friends decided to jump the ship of the corporate rut to surf the rocky waters of the startup ecosystem, bantering on the way. Pitchers reflected the ambitions of working professionals, exasperated by the whims of their bosses, simmering to come out of the bottle and desperate to Make in India. Things have changed seven years since. Hustle is not a positive word anymore. Quiet quitting has made its way into corporate lingo. The web series marketplace has multiple sellers and wares. Pitchers couldn’t be just a YouTube sketch with a narrative. It had to tell a deeper story.
Season 2 begins with Naveen, Yogi and Saurabh Mandal (Abhay Mahajan) finally running their startup. We still don’t know what the product is but at least we have a name and possibly a sector: Pragati A.I. Fan-darling and coder extraordinaire Jeetu (Jitendra Kumar) has quit the company for reasons unknown. The Pitchers have bigger problems on their plate. Managing an office with a bank balance depleting by the day, meeting the requirements of a fickle market and anchoring shark VCs. The veil has lifted and battles can’t be fought anymore with just pep talks.
The writers have wisely made the show bleaker in the second instalment. Pitchers S2, with its pigeon-hole office spaces, all-glass cabins and steely lifts feels rightly claustrophobic. Although sucked dry of the quirky humour of the previous season, the writing of the series is more mature yet plain in some instances. It catapults the viewers into the big, bad world of angel investors, term sheets, pivots, and APIs and doesn’t pause to spoon-feed the jargon. As a result, the narrative feels natural, with a grip on the world it inhabits.
If you are still under the nostalgia of season 1, Pitchers S2 won’t be an easy watch. Mandal isn’t the butt of jokes anymore, Yogi has fewer one-liners and Naveen has flaws. It’s clear that the makers are focusing on telling a story but somewhere on the way, they lose out on their characters. In a bid to become a serious drama, the series misses out on the humourous bits. Pitchers S2 understands the assignment, it just forgets to have fun while doing it.
Series: Pitchers S2
Created by: Arunabh Kumar
Starring: Naveen Kasturia, Arunabh Kumar, Abhay Mahajan, Abhishek Banerjee
Streaming on: ZEE5