The word 'comedy' is missing from the title of the Netflix show, The Great Indian Kapil Show.
One wonders why.
After all, Kapil is synonymous with laughter.
He can, for an hour, make us forget our worries -- like your next EMI, paying your child’s hefty tuition fees, work pressures or family tensions.
He transports you into his world for a much-needed dopamine hit as you laugh your woes away.
In season 3 of The Great Indian Kapil Show, which premiered on June 21, Kapil Sharma laughs.
Salman Khan laughs.
Navjot Singh Siddhu laughs.
Archana Puran Singh laughs.
The audience in the Netflix studio laughs.
Watching it from home, I could not laugh; the show was just not funny.
There is no ‘comedy’ on this show.
No wonder, the word has been dropped from the title as well.
Navjot Singh Sidhu's return is a dud; none of his Sidhuisms were funny.
Paresh Rawal's Teja in Andaz Apna Apna would have said, 'Kaisey kaisey ko paal rakha hai Netflix. Dus-dus hazar ka suit pehnte hai par dus paise ki comedy nahin hai.'
As for Archana Puran Singh, she seems to think the louder she laughs, the more she will be paid.
Watching Sunil Grover in his new role as Budhi makes you wonder what's wrong with him.
And the less said about Krushna Abhishek the better; he feels dressing up as a woman and wooing a Rs 59-year-old Salman is funny.
Salman Khan, too, disappoints big time.
After Sikandar's failure at the box office, he seems to want to underline to the world that, at 59, his career is still doing well.
He asks a lookalike on the show, 'Did your business get hurt because of Sikander?'
The lookalike says no.
Salman says, 'People are unnecessarily talking about it. When your life did not get affected, how will it affect mine?'
The star has appeared on the show many times and has usually been very funny. Unfortunately, Kapil's choice of done-to-death topics like Salman’s marriage and Karan Arjun don't really help matters.
Since the topic of the show was marriage, how could jokes about divorce be far behind? Salman cracked one about his brother Sohail Khan’s marriage falling apart, saying, ‘Woh bhi bhaag gayi' referring to Sohail's ex-wife, Seema Sajdeh.
The Great Indian Kapil Show seems to have replaced comedy with crassness. Unless it gets a fresh perspective, it could really benefit from ignoring that old adage, 'The show must go on.'
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
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