The who’s who of Indian comedy. Sanjeev Bhaskar, best known for his Goodness Gracious Me and Kumars at No 42, lends the protagonist Kenny his versatility. Nitin Ganatra (kids will remember him as Prince Pondicherry of Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) fits in as Kenny’s clumsy manager, Dev. British actress Daisy Beaumont essays, with all her passion, Terri’s character. While these three take the centre stage, India’s youngest standup comedian, Vir Das, also features in the show.
Beaumont, despite sharing screen-space with the likes of Bhaskar and Ganatra, manages to stand out. Her character is reminiscent of Elizabeth Hurley’s in Bedazzled — one of the latter’s few remembered performances — as Beaumont with all her feistiness, portrays the character of a career woman with a devil-may-care attitude.
The show undoubtedly has the Bhaskar influence, which works more with British audiences. The production quality is amateurish and humour slapstick. The producers clearly don’t realise that the Indian audience has matured. Groundbreaking sitcoms like Friends, Scrubs and HBO’s own, Sex and the City have raised the bar.
Secondly, Bhaskar has been unable to let go of the unreal accent from Kumars and everyone Indian on the show, except him, sports it. He probably hasn’t woken up to the fact that Indians, especially those working at an international BPO, are capable of pulling off an American or Brit accent like a local. Finally, given the global economic scenario and the Western attitude towards outsourcing to India, the portrayal of employees as dimwits reinforces stereotypes and is plain bad PR for us.
Verdict
You should watch it if slapstick is your thing. And despite having said so much, there is hope for the show. The promos were hilarious, infused with smart punch lines and dialogues and we hope to see more of that. Comedy sitcoms are known to pick up after a couple of episodes, once they have established the plot. We hope that’s the case with Mumbai Calling as well.
