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I would term this series as ideal fare for relaxation.
No, nothing can touch the heights of J.D. Majethia-Aatish Kapadia’s Sarabhai Vs. Sarabhai or Khichdi. Twice a classic, always a classic. But unlike the duo’s Happy Family—Conditions Apply, which was outstanding for a few episodes and then derailed completely, this one is a definite highpoint in today’s times.
Any story rests on the core characters and this time, Kapadia homes in on five eccentric families. We have Rajni (Neena Gupta) and her husband, Kuku (the ever-reliable Deven Bhojani), for whom forgetfulness has become like a cute middle name except when he really wants to remember something, like his muse, Munmun (Ravee Gupta). In a moment of pique, to live a bit for herself, as he puts it, Rajni takes a divorce from him but continues to look after her ex-husband! But she does have a (reciprocated) soft corner for a young man who comes into her life, Ronit Roy Choudhury (Rohit Roy).
The second crazy family is of the Khannas, comprising Aditya (Sumit Vyas), an ad filmmaker, his wife Priyanka (Manasi Parekh), who speaks thirty-eight to the dozen instead of the proverbial nineteen, and their super-brattish sons, essayed by Vidhaan Sharma and Vidvaan Sharma.
Family number three in many ways, is the craziest—we have Freddy Taraporewala (Anant Vijay Joshi), a Parsi chef, married to Hutoxi (Amyra Dastur), an author. The couple lives with Freddy’s eccentric and headstrong mother, Gulshan (Delnaaz Irani).
Then we have the chalk-n-cheese couple, Dr. Mikhael Oberoi a.k.a. Mickey (Arjun Bijlani), a heart surgeon, and his wife Twinkle (Helly Shah), who can give the proverbial blonde a severe complex. They are deep in love despite Mickey’s roving eye, but Twinkle’s dad, Nari Ravjiani (Atul Kumar), a kind of don, hates his son-in-law. Micky and Twinkle address each other every time with fresh endearments, while Nari devises fresh euphemisms for Mickey all the time. Nari has a super-dense acolyte in Vishnusharman (Bhalchandra Kadam), who simply breaks into mother-tongue Marathi whenever perplexed or frustrated.
The last family comprises Dharmendra Kejriwal (Sumeet Raghavan), an actor specializing in feminine roles, his wife Kiran (Sandeepa Dhar) and their daughter Piya (Bhoomi Ramola).
Now what is common to all these motley human specimens? Simply that they occupy a gated rowhouse complex named Chumbak Colony in suburban Mumbai and are so well-knit that they are there for each other—well, almost all the time. Crazy situations, crazier perspectives, eccentricities pushed to deliberately mad levels abound along with all kinds of puns and every possible angle of lunatic, bizarre and preposterous fun abound in the 16 episodes.
However, in the final few, the series goes on an emotional track and the end is feel-good with, of course, the promise of another season to come.
Besides the script and direction, such an enterprise would be futile if the roles mentioned above did not go to superb actors. Standing out even among a uniformly supreme level of performances are the inimitably hilarious Helly Shah, the maniacal Atul Kumar, the wannabe-dominating Delnaaz Irani, the stoic Bhalchandra Kadam and the non-Parsi playing one to perfection—Anant Vijay Joshi. They are fantabulous!
But then every artiste makes a mark and the series is one whole phantasmagoria of wackiness, laced, of course, with subtle messages. The usual kind of background “music” (with sound effects and exclamations et al) found in the sitcoms of Kapadia and Majethia enrich this series.
Though at times the pace and fun voltage dips, I would recommend this chaotic look at quirky humans and their bonds.
Rating: **** (Almost)
Netflix presents Hats Off Productions’ Chumbak Produced by: J.D. Majethia Written & Directed by: Aatish Kapadia Music: Uttank Vora & Uroovak Vora Starring: Deven Bhojani, Neena Gupta, Delnaaz Irani, Sumit Vyas, Sumeet Raghavan, Anant Vijay Joshi, Amyra Dastur, Manasi Parekh, Helly Shah, Arjun Bijlani, Bhalchandra Kadam, Atul Kumar, Ravee Gupta, Rohit Roy, Gurpal Singh, Vidwaan Sharma, Vidhaan Sharma, Elli Avrram, Bhoomi Ramola & others
