Shit Happens Review – An Attempt at Adult Comedy Gone Wrong

BOTTOM LINE: An Attempt at Adult Comedy Gone Wrong

Rating: 3/10

What Is the Story About?

Shit Happens is a tale of three college friends Harsha, Sameer, and Sathvik and their desperate quest to get laid. So unlucky they are with girls that they are named a ‘dry batch’ by their classmates referring to their virginity. Their sanskari parents contribute to their reputation, finding excuses to keep the boys away from the romantic interests they bring to their houses. What’s worse? They are terrible in initiating a conversation with women. But whatever it is, they’re eager to prove their friends wrong and hire a hooker to satiate their lust, only to find her dead at their home. What’s the way forward?

Performances?

Shit Happens is supposedly a comedy where none of the lead actors appear to have a funny have. The generally dependable Viva Harsha seems to have fallen into a trap by rehashing the same histrionics and dialogue modulation visible in his every other digital outing. Sameer Malla and Tarun Shetty are too raw as actors to pull off the comedy genre.

Veteran character artiste Annapoorna is saddled in an uninteresting role of a mother-in-law, who tries to be a control freak. It’s only left to comedian Prudhvi Raj to salvage the show and he’s damn good while he lasts. Sanjana Galrani doesn’t have a great character to boast of – though she’s just about okay in the minimal screen-time she gets. The special appearances by Mahesh Vitta, Suhas and Chandini Chowdary don’t add much value to the show.

Analysis

On paper, Shit Happens had all the potential to be an entertaining adult comedy. Three boys, their unlucky travails with women and one wild night with a dead body sounds like an interesting Hangover-ish premise on paper but the makers fall short in converting the idea into a worthwhile show. The screenplay is so dull and amateurish, the comedy falls flat and too many characters have little value to add to the story.

Despite the show lasting well under two hours, the writers fail to come up with many interesting situations. The dialogues feel like fillers and the execution shows the inability of the director and the writer to extend the show beyond its seed-idea. Sameer’s passion for cars coming in the way of his conversations with girls had all the scope to be funny. Harsha’s part feels like a rehash of every other character he’s performed to date, updated with a dose of perversion. Sathvik’s absent-mindedness while booking cabs and tickets for his parents isn’t explored with interest either.

Shit Happens’ central characters deserved actors with a better flair for comedy. You realise this especially when Prudhvi Raj is superb in his brief role as a cop. His trademark sarcasm, witty one-liners in his conversations with the three friends are among the best portions of the show. The subplot about the Swiggy delivery boy eloping with a girl in an apartment also is an opportunity missed. The part dealing with a boy’s grandma returning from Varanasi comes across as if it exists in a vacuum.

Surprisingly, the story makes space for inclusivity and even portrays a homosexual couple without much fuss. That’s definitely some progress. But, the goodwill is lost soon, thanks to the frequent lines that almost celebrate body and colour shaming. The ending is an excuse of sorts, the makers were only trying to end the show by hook or crook. The cop expressing his admiration for the equation that the three friends share is hardly the finish that the story needed. Shit Happens is a tiring watch where the unimaginative execution lets down a reasonable one-liner of an idea.

Music and Other Departments?

The series isn’t exactly dependent on music to run its course. The background score, though isn’t bad, is an effort that goes down the drain because of the poor screenplay. The cinematography is neat within the scope of the story, while better writing could have made a world of difference to the final impact.

Highlights?

Prudhvi Raj’s performance
Interesting idea

Drawbacks?

Unimaginative screenplay
A mediocre lead cast
Absence of quality humour

Did I Enjoy It?

No

Will You Recommend It?

Not at all

Review by Srivathsan Nadadhur

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