The journey for Kapil Sharma has been a rather fascinating one so far. From being the winner of the then-popular The Great Indian Laughter Challenge (TGILC), who would have anticipated that amidst the flock of so many comedians who also won other seasons of that show, it would be Sharma – who would sustain, thrive and persevere like no other.
It almost feels like a full circle as Kapil’s latest outing on Netflix is titled, ‘The Great Indian Kapil Show’ just as he began with TGILC about 16 years ago. Nevertheless, as he arrives on Netflix, the bigger draw for this innings was the reunion of Sharma and Sunil Grover – after their infamous fallout and the latter’s exit from The Kapil Sharma Show on Sony TV.
What primarily works best for the Netflix commencement is that the makers and Sharma himself – have chosen to stay true to their essence and format. If you have been an ardent Kapil Sharma viewer, you know there’s a potent format of segments that he follows with his team – and that continued here as well.
These are experienced comedians at work as Sharma’s beginning stand-up bit, Kiku Sharda being reliable as always, Krushna Abhishek’s Animal skit and of course, the return of Sunil Grover and his bit with guest Ranbir Kapoor – all worked and landed as well as they would have intended it to. Some punchlines, and Grover’s recall value doing the entire segment with Kapoor were genuinely hilarious and had you more than chuckling.
However, given the platform and given the attempt to go bigger – it seemed more like a mixed bag. Firstly, the runtime felt rather short as the incorporation of three gags and one stand-up bit didn’t quite allow time for Kapil to interact with the first guests of the show – the Kapoor clan consisting of Neetu Kapoor, Riddhima Kapoor Sahni and aforementioned, Ranbir Kapoor.
Granted, there were some lovely anecdotes and newer things to share and reveal in whatever conversation Sharma had with the family – but it seemed hastier and incomplete. That was also another factor that was questionable where the editing seemed scrappy as the reactions seemed delayed from the occurrence. But mostly and the most underwhelming takeaway from the episode was the constant conversation, plug-in, and even one gag about Animal. Owing to the film is on Netflix, the cross-branding and constant talks about Animal and how incredibly it has performed at the box office and on the streamer – felt very repetitive and fatigued.
While Abhishek’s gag playing Bobby Deol from Animal was unique and funny, because it came towards the end – it was overkill owing to how the earlier 45 minutes felt just back-to-back callbacks to Animal.
The Great Indian Kapil Show wasn’t as ‘great’ as everyone would have expected it to be but it does its job well of having its usual viewers tune in to stream them and it does rather well in translating the humor and laughs through subtitles to the 190 plus countries it caters to worldwide.