**By Isha Sharma | Oct 01, 2025, 12:02 am**

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**What’s the Story?**

*13th*, out on SonyLIV, is produced by Abhishek Dhandharia, who also serves as the showrunner. Created and written by Sameer Mishra and directed by Nishil Sheth, the show instantly reminds you of The Viral Fever (TVF) projects due to its rawness and theme. Alas, the similarities end there. Despite an interesting premise, this series—drawing inspiration from the life of Competishun founder Mohit Tyagi—never quite soars.

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**Plot: A Student Helps His Teacher Realize His Dream**

The story follows Ritesh (Paresh Pahuja), a rising venture capitalist who gives up his high-paying job to help his mentor, MT Sir (Gagan Dev Riar). MT Sir taught Ritesh during his “13th year”—the drop year after the 12th grade—when he was preparing for the IIT entrance exam.

Now, years later, Ritesh decides to assist him in building a visionary ed-tech startup. Will this guru-shishya duo succeed?

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### 1. The Protagonist Is Always at a Distance

*13th* fails to hit the right spot due to its extremely heavy-handed storytelling. From the very first frame, the show positions Ritesh as an aggressive, hot-headed man who marches to his own beat. Early on, he delivers a fiery speech about his dissatisfaction with his job, setting in motion the chain of events that lead him back to MT Sir.

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### 2. Too Filmy, Too Theatrical

While the show is conversation-heavy and features some sharp dialogues, most characters deliver full-fledged sermons! The exchanges between MT Sir and Ritesh quickly become tiresome, as they come across like filmy, cardboard characters rather than genuine, relatable people.

Interestingly enough, during flashbacks of Ritesh’s JEE preparation, we see MT Sir going to great lengths to mentor him—but what about the other students?

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### 3. Supporting Characters Remain Underdeveloped

The show is so obsessed with the two leads that it largely forgets to develop the supporting characters. The most successful shows, like *Panchayat* and *The Family Man*, give well-rounded arcs to all characters to make the narrative more believable. Sadly, *13th* doesn’t bother to do the same.

Girija Oak, who plays MT Sir’s wife, gets some nice scenes, but that’s hardly enough to enrich the story.

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### 4. Pahuja and Dev Riar Try to Keep the Series Afloat

The watchable moments in *13th* largely come from Paresh Pahuja and Gagan Dev Riar’s camaraderie and craft. The show pays tribute to the teacher-student relationship, especially as Ritesh’s life comes full circle when he helps MT Sir with his business.

“I owe my life to him,” Ritesh says, and in return, he becomes his mentor’s teacher.

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**Verdict: Can Skip This SonyLIV Original**

*13th*’s biggest undoing is that it takes itself too seriously, making it hard to have fun with what ends up being a tedious show. We meet Ritesh’s friends in the initial scenes, but their arcs are never properly developed.

The series aspires to capture the ache and angst of IIT aspirants and almost succeeds, but ultimately fails to capitalize fully on its theme.

**Rating: 2/5 stars**
https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/entertainment/gagan-dev-riar-sonyliv-s-13th-review/story