Casino(ZEE5)
Starring Karanvir Bohra, Sudhanshu Pandey, Mandana Karim, Aindrita Ray
Rating: *** (3 stars)
Care for some old-fashioned style drama, the dirty doings of the filthy-rich that we just couldn’t get enough in the good old days of The Bold & The Beautiful and Khaandaan?
These super-rich folks, I tell you! They sleep with everyone, including their almost-stepmom. The very alluring Mandana Karim is joined at the hip with casino-owning billionaire Sudhanshu Pandey, who looks Vijay Mallaya on strict diet of salads and sex. But she’s also dating and mating the tycoon’s son which makes this the messiest triangle since the Bermuda one.
Mr senior moneybag Marwah holds Rehana (Ms Mandana) close to his chest like cards during a game of poker. But she, clever woman, has designs on Marwah Junior played by Karamvir Vohra who has obviously not seen Abbas-Mustan’s Aetraaz. If he did he would know what seductive vampish women can do to a marriage.
Rehana wears slitted dresses and smokes cigarettes, only bad women do such things in Bollywood…and this is Bollywood on the small screen. The series spares no expenses to make the frames look inviting. Picturesque lakes, beautiful women, smoldering songs(I like Sunidhi Chauhan’s title song especially the way she says Casino, makes it like a Kiss-she-know) and sense of keeping the audiences’ faith alive keeps you going through the Sidney Sheldonesque peek into over-privileged hedonistic lives.
Sudhanshu Pandey and Karanvir Bohra do well as father and son playing against each other while feigning mutual respect for each other’s space. There should have been more of these two on-screen rather than the assortment of curious cops and perverse politicians,
Mandana Karim looks hotter than July. Of course, she can act better. Overall, it deserves a watch.
