It seems that Kapil Sharma and his team on The Great Indian Kapil Show have not learned from their mistakes in Season 2. Following a weak and amateurish debut season on Netflix, the latest season does nothing to spice things up.
Episode 1 of Season 2 featured Kapil and the rest of his gang with the team of Dharma Productions’ Jigra, consisting of Karan Johar, Alia Bhatt (who also produced the film with Johar), Vedang Raina and director Vasan Bala.
Kapil Sharma once again put in effort to entertain the audience with his light-hearted humor, adding just the right touch of adult-themed punchlines. Let’s be honest, folks! The popular comedian has been using this stale, overripe formula for the last eleven years, dating back to his days on Colors TV’s Comedy Nights With Kapil. He does the same in the opening episode of Season 2 as well. Although the new episode looks marginally better than Season 1’s premiere, which featured Alia’s husband, Ranbir Kapoor, along with his mother, Neetu Kapoor, and sister, Riddhima Kapoor Sahni.
We see Rajiv Thakur carrying Johar and Bhatt on a caddy (the only thing he does good in the show, tbh). Let’s be real, the days when Thakur’s name carried any weight are long gone. Once a standout talent on Sony’s Comedy Circus, he’s now been reduced to little more than a pointless sidekick on The Great Indian Kapil Show. If his career could sink any lower, it’d be underground by now.
Moments later, we see Alia sharing some exclusive details about her daughter and her relationship with Ranbir. Johar also opens up about his bond with his children. Kapil tries to tease Alia by bringing up one of Ranbir’s “exes”, who happens to be Dafli (played by Grover). His routine instantly takes us back to his past edgy interaction with Ranbir in Season 1.
Remember how we used to copy our homework from friends in school, only bothering to change our names? Well, that’s basically Dafli in a nutshell—just Gutthi from Comedy Nights, but with a different name slapped on. The entire segment with Dafli had its funny moments, but there were also a few instances of awkwardness. Overall, it felt a bit drawn out.
Season 1 certainly struggled with a shorter runtime and some editing problems. It’s great to see that the new season tackles these issues and provides more screen time for all the characters. However, stale and mundane humor can’t carry a 71-minute episode. On a brighter note, the episode did stand out during a segment where Kapil showcased amusing comments from Alia and others’ Instagram photos, and some of those were genuinely entertaining!
But thanks to Sunil Grover, whose spot-on portrayal of Shah Rukh Khan saves the episode in the last 14 minutes. The way he captured SRK’s mannerisms is truly commendable. His mimicry was so flawless that Krushna Abhishek broke character as ‘Safina’ and jokingly asked Grover not to do his job so ‘naturally’. Even though the segment wrapped up somewhat awkwardly when Grover forgot his lines, Episode 1 of Season 2 highlighted his importance to the show.
The premiere episode of Netflix’s The Great Indian Kapil Show Season 2 once again proved that Kapil alone cannot carry the show. In other words, this show cannot survive without Sunil Grover’s belly-aching humour and picture-perfect impersonations. Stay tuned for more updates.
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