Zakir Khan’s new solo TV show, Apka Apna Zakir went on air on 10th of August on Sony TV. This is the first time Zakir is doing a TV show, a stage where your content undergoes a lot of filtration before becoming presentable on national TV. The first two episodes went successfully and the guests that appeared were: Karan Johar, Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao. Apka Apna Zakir is basically a talk show that aims to provide family-friendly comedy content and interactions/interviews with celebrities. It is basically a replacement for The Kapil Sharma Show after Kapil Sharma created another show with Netflix.
The show features Zakir Khan- the famous Indian comedian, as the centre person. He is assisted by the likes of Shweta Tiwari, Paresh, Ritwik Dhanjani and Gopal Dutt. The show features new celebrity/ies every week and the cast interact with them the same way it used to happen in The Kapil Sharma Show. Though the show has its own typical format and is not the facsimile of any talk show; in the words of Zakir it is a ‘deluxe thali,’ comprising of ‘ek katori mazedaar baatein, ek katori thodi si guftgu jo dil ko chu jaaye, ghee ki chupdi huyi roti jaisi comedy, and mazedaar pagalpan wala achaar.’; still the perception of this show as a replacement of The Kapil Sharma Show never goes away from one’s mind.
The show has its own unique charm. Zakir uses his Zakirism to connect to the audience, cracking jokes along with various life philosophies; Shweta works perfectly as the glamour angle; other characters play as the perfect confidantes being experienced actors in the genre. But still the show does not seem to be an eye catcher.
Zakir seems to lose an edge with filtered family-friendly content and hence one cannot find the true Zakirism here. As this is his first TV show, he seems to lack confidence and it is evident through certain miss-ups in between. The characters are not in a good synergy and this impacts their performance. The use of old and stale jokes makes the show unwatchable.
The show, though tries to make up for Sony’s absence of a comedy talk show, fails miserably in its attempt to do so. People will still be in the hangover of The Kapil Sharma Show even with a replacement present.