What Is the Story About?
A middle class man, a honest government employee, also a CA Topper resorts to secret escort services amidst terrible financial crisis to keep his family afloat. Flying high on his newly found income source, Tribhuvan Mishra gets entangled in a dirty loop of politics, murder & gangster gang nexus to become what he once despised – a corrupt officer.
Performances?
One of the biggest assets of Tribhuvan Mishra – CA Topper is the performances that carry a middling story. Manav Kaul plays Tribhuvan Mishra, an honest government employee who unintentionally gets embroiled in a scary loop of murder, sex work and corruption because of a financial crisis with panache. His performance is honest and genuine as a naive and gullible loser on the lines of Shahrukh Khan’s character in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. The double-life lead by Tribhuvan makes for an interesting watch, undeniably.
The incredible Tillotama Shome is Bindi, a bollywood-romance obsessed woman in her 40s who desperately seeks for spark in her dull and boring married life with Ram Bhai aka Teeka Ram Jain. Ram Jain runs a sweet shop during the day but turns a gangster ‘Ram Bhai’ by the night with henchmen who also work at the sweet-shop. She is equal amounts tender and non-chalant adding to the double-lives Tribhuvan and Ram lives.
Teeka Ram Jain’s performance as Ram Bhai starts on an unsettling note but the actor’s performance grows on you when an unlikely crime triggers a never ending cat and mouse game (like a dozen other Netflix Indian originals). The supporting cast has Faisal Malik, Naina Sareen, Shweta Basu Prasad and Panchayat’s Ashok Pathak amongst many others. Shweta Basu Prasad has some rollicking fun in her role alongside the rest sinking their teeths into the world and mood set by the show.
Analysis
Tribhuvan Mishra : CA Topper written by Puneet Krishna, Karan Vyas, Aarti Raval and Sumit Purohit is directed by Puneet Krishna and Amrit Raj Gupta. A genre binding crime/comedy/drama that revolves around an honest middle class government employee, his financial crisis and unfortunate choices he makes to earn that extra money to handle his finances forms the crux of the show.
The show opens with three couples watching a fluffy Bollywood movie : Tribhuvan and his family (of 4), His brother-in-law and his wife and another couple in their 40s, now sauceless and sparkless. We are introduced to Tribhuvan Mishra, who is a CA Topper and a very honest government employee who refuses to take bribes come what may and his soft and understanding wife Ashoklata. Ashoklata’s brother is an insurance policy agent and his wife Shobha : an ambitious woman with a weird gun-fixation.
Ram Bhai runs a mithai-ki-dukan, but also runs a shadow business of spying on cheating couples when he’s not busy killing his rivals. His wife – Bindi is unhappy and unsatisfied in her married life. A financial crisis and bank-freeze situation forces Tribhuvan to take bribe to arrange for school feels and home renovation of his parents. Feeling guilty of the bribe taken, he vows to repay the amount in installments.
Tribhuvan is looked down upon by everyone around him for his honesty and for being a ‘loser’ who can never stand up for himself. However, the only superpower he possesses leads him to taking up male escort services outside his desk job. Parallely trained by a fellow male escort, Tribhuvan under the fake name of ‘CA Topper’ becomes a big name in the escort business. What started of as a desperate way of earning money lands Tribhuvan in bigger troubles when he meets Bindi and she becomes his favourite client.
Being an escort made him not only feel happy and confident, but also high on women’s compliments about how good he was on and off the bed. However, Tribhuvan and Bindi lands on big trouble when Ram Bhai discovers her adultery. An unlikely crime follows and add to the mix, Shobha who found her way into this mess all by herself.
Tribhuvan Mishra : CA Topper follows a very predictable route post the *crime* where the main leads and a huge caravan of characters chase each other. The show doesn’t get to be anything in totality. There are desperate attempts for gags that don’t land. The crime and investigation doesn’t reach fruition either and then there are so many characters that makes the plot further crowded and loud.
The dialogues of the show in a way sound like poor imitations of Mirzapur or Secret Games. But the difference is, the premise of the shows are nowhere similar. Tribhuvan Mishra : CA Topper suffers from a Middling story and vague screenplay, furthered by inconsistent character arcs. Although Manav Kaul tries his level best, his character arc doesn’t get a breather.
While the show’s intentions and politics to begin with are appreciable, it necessarily doesn’t achieve what it sets out to do. Placing sex and pleasure of women on the center stage while most women characters CA Topper meets are mere token animations to push a point across. It’s also high time makers realise that movie-references, that too quite a lot is not all that fun.
To conclude, Tribhuvan Mishra : CA Topper, from the creators of Mirzapur is a crime-comedy-drama that tries to handle societal taboos around sex through comedy while also culminating at a typical Netflix crime-scene where everything goes wrong. But unfortunately the show does justice to neither of the genres or themes. The performances are good, but not enough to salvage this middling mess.
Music and Other Departments?
Tribhuvan Mishra, CA Topper’s technical aspects goes for a toss as it tries to duplicate the world building and tonalities of shows like Mirzapur. The background music is quite so-so and so is the camera work. The cinematography is reduced to neon lights, pom-poms and sultry-gimmicks while it achieves barely a thing.
Highlights?
Performances
Politics of the story
Drawbacks?
– Middling story
– Vague Screenplay
– ill-fitted Pop-culture references
– Too Many characters
– Inconsistent character arcs
Did I Enjoy It?
Not really.
Will You Recommend It?
Yes, but with huge reservations.
Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper Review by Binged Bureau