What Is the Story About?
ZEE5‘s newest original web series ‘Kaun Banegi Shikharwati’ centres on the crumbling kingdom of Shikharwat, its idiosyncratic premier, King Mrityunjay (Naseeruddin Shah), and his pragmatic advisor, Mishraji (Raghubir Yadav). The duo devises a hair-brained scheme to save the Shikharwati palace from being taken over by the state for non-payment of crores of rupees in wealth tax. His four estranged daughters, Devyani (Lara Dutta), Gayatri (Soha Ali Khan), Kaamini (Kritika Kamra) and Uma (Anya Singh) play along with his unconventional plan for their own selfish motives, with a surprise or two in store for all of them.
Performances?
Naseeruddin Shah is a hoot as the eccentric, happy-go-lucky king whose kingdom and subjects are dwindling by the day. It’s literally a treat to watch him in the quirky role. Raghubir Yadav matches him step for step in the acting chops department. Together, the duo is the best part of ‘Kaun Banegi Shikharwati’.
Lara Dutta has been in her element in her recent OTT outings. She doesn’t quite cut it in ‘Kaun Banegi Shikharwati’ however. The poorly written character does her in. Soha Ali Khan is staid and sophisticated as Gayatri, giving credence to her real-life royal lineage. Kritika Kamra pulls off her vacuous social media butterfly role with effortless ease, and looks good while doing it. Anya Singh is equally good as the introverted coding whiz who’s prone to allergy and panic attacks.
The male leads, Cyrus Sahukar, Anurag Sinha and Varun Thakur, don’t have as much to do. They make their presence felt, nevertheless.
Analysis
‘Kaun Banegi Shikharwati’ starts off on a shaky note, with a less than interesting first episode. The pilot episode sets up the characters and their particular traits in a boring and contrived manner. One can almost see writer-director Ananya Banerjee’s screenplay physically tick off a prepared check-list of personality traits for the four princesses— high-achieving perfectionist; sensitive, spiritually-inclined thinker; air-headed Instagram influencer; video game coder. It is obvious that the writer tries hard to be different but only succeeds in stitching together a jarringly inorganic introductory narrative that is barely any fun to watch.
Once the introduction is out of the way, the plot proceeds to enter even more inane territory. The king pits his daughters up against each other in a set of games, comprising of nine rounds based on the ‘Navarasa’. The winner at the end of the nine rounds will ultimately be crowned the new king, or more specifically queen, of Shikharwat. Laughably enough, and needlessly, may we add, the games give a nod to the superhit Netflix series ‘Squid Game’, by making the princesses dress up in matching track suits in the exact teal shade and style worn by the participants in that seminal Korean drama. The games, of course, are hardly as intense or meaningful. On the contrary, they are silly, childish and outright buffoonery.
Adding to the drama is an absurd sub-plot concerning Gayatri’s daughter, who is supposedly blessed with clairvoyance. The little girl spouts profound declarations with poker-faced perfection. While it does make for an intriguing distraction from the inanity of the rest of the story, its relevance to the plot is beyond the viewer’s understanding.
The sub-plot involving the ‘Don of Dubai’ is another done-to-death element of the plot. Interestingly, the Don is set to take the central role in ‘Kaun Banegi Shikharwati’ Season 2, as the final shot of the series indicates, and if ZEE5 green-lights a new season of the show..
The finale of Kaun Banegi Shikharwati is predictable enough. It’s quite obvious that the entire runtime of the series is inching towards that one intended end, and one end alone – the estranged sisters rediscovering their love for each other, and forgiving daddy dear for certain perceived wrongs.
Kaun Banegi Shikharwati is a classic example of a story that looks exciting on paper but turns out to be a damp squib when executed. All said and done, the show ticks all the boxes of uninspired writing. The characterizations in the show are as cardboard as they come. The plot is shoddy and all over the place. The comic sequences reek of artifice and contrivance. Watch it only if you have ample free time to kill, and nothing else to do.
Music and Other Departments?
Linesh Desai’s camerawork is adequate – nothing out of the ordinary to praise there. Likewise with Ninad Khanolkar’s editing. Anurag Saikia’s music and background score is average and unmemorable.
Highlights?
Naseeruddin Shah
Raghubir Yadav
The chemistry between the aforementioned two
Drawbacks?
Shoddy screenplay
Contrived characterizations
Inane plot
Bland humour
Did I Enjoy It?
Not muchWill You Recommend It?
NoKaun Banegi Shikharwati Review by Binged Bureau
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