I have often remarked on the sudden preponderance of ‘gays’ in the recent web series, whether needed or not. And this time, we even show the ‘hereditary’ angle of this tweak in a human being’s internal make-up. The Maharaja of Morpur, Yuvanath (Milind Soman) is living a fake life as he is actually gay but has been married off to Maharani Padmaja (Sakshi Tanwar), who therefore also presents a façade of happiness and has to have a (in today’s terminology) cool ‘understanding’ with hubby.
They have three children (the ‘how’ is not explained!)—Aviraaj a.k.a. Fizzy (Ishaan Khatter), Digvijay a.k.a. Diggy (Vihaan Samat) and Divyaranjanai a.k.a. Jinnie (Kavya Trehan) and Jinnie too is gay! Diggy loves cooking and wants to be a chef, while Fizzy, by rights the new king after Yuvanath’s death, is least interested in his kingdom, prefers to live in New York, yet cares like mad for his steed, Khan, who has been gifted to him in childhood by dad.
The matriarch of the family is Rajmata Bhagyashree (Zeenat Aman), who looks at life with a ‘gay’ (not in the homosexual but its most popular connotation!) as in happy-go-lucky angle.
Into this tangled parivaar steps in Sophia from Madurai, the ambitious and impulsive CEO of an organization called Work Potato. She plans to turn the palace into a B&B (hotel with Bed & Breakfast) setup where commoner guests can interact with ‘royalty’ even as they enjoy a stay in the palace. Truth be told, the Morpur clan is almost in penury, have sold off most of their assets and terminated the services of most of their staff, so this is a win-win situation.
However, on Sophia’s front too, things get more than a little complicated. Her boss (Addinath Kothare) is after her blood, her closest friend and colleague Kunal (Udit Arora) feels sidelined and she is on tenterhooks as this exercise must become successful for her career to go smoothly.
Matters get even more complex as Yuvanath leaves all his moneys to someone named ‘Maurice’, whom nobody knows. Jinnie falls for Sophia’s co-worker Niki (Lisa Mishra). Diggy gets a chance to enter a global cooking competition, meeting a fellow contestant, Molshri (Yashaswini Dayama), who begins to like him (and vice-versa). Finally, Padmaja, fed up of living in a psychological closet, opts for a more-than-friend in Mumbai superstar Ranjit (Chunky Pandey) for a ‘free’ relationship.
Maurice (Luke Kenny) is Yuvanath’s boyfriend and saunters in at a late stage and plans to write a book on their relationship. Ayesha (Nora Fatehi) is Fizzy’s ex, a loaded girl who is daughter to the Nawab of Dhondi (Alyy Khan). There are undercurrents there when Aviraaj again rejects her though the Dhondi clan can bail the ‘Royals’ out of their money crises. The Nawab too is infatuated with Padmaja!
It is really a shame that this series has such a splendid ensemble cast (Dino Morea also walks in and out like an ‘extra’!) and yet rests on immature and unoriginal writing and unimaginative storytelling that will barely connect with audiences. One example is how a sudden discussion between Jinnie and Ayesha takes place after the Dhondis have been rejected by Aviraaj and his mother!
The entire clan does not know of Diggy’s genius as a cook and his forays into a TV cooking show and he casually announces it one day. It also seems as if the quarter-finals and semi-finals of this ‘international contest’ are held consecutively on the same day. A series of events make all the three siblings rush to Mumbai on a flight the same day when their mother has caught the plane to meet Ranjit. She realizes that they are on the same flight (after a messy interaction in the palace after Padmaja’s departure!!) but they do not!
There are many other silly errors and also random other absurdities. So I must compliment Ishaan Khatter, Bhumi Pednekar, Vihaan Samat and— as the family’s Jeeves—Jagdish Rajpurohit (Vihaan and Jagdish above all), Nora Fatehi, Udit Arora and Yashaswini Dayama for excellent performances. Chunky Pandey and Dino Morea are their usual easygoing selves. Zeenat Aman is amusing in parts. The rest do the needful. Alyy Khan hams.
This one is all gloss and glitter—but vacuously middling fare.
Rating: **1/2 (One star for the acting prowess mentioned above!)
Netflix presents Pritish Nandy Communications’ The Royals Created by: Rangita Pritish Nandy & Ishita Pritish Nandy Produced by: Pritish Nandy Directed by: Priyanka Bose & Nupur Asthana Written by: Neha Veena Sharma, Vishnu Sinha & Iti Agarwal Music: Harsh Upadhyay, Aditya N. & Nayantara Bhatkal Starring: Ishaan Khatter, Bhumi Pednekar, Sakshi Tanwar, Zeenat Aman, Vihaan Samat, Kavya Trehan, Udit Arora, Nora Fatehi, Dino Morea, Milind Soman, Chunky Panday, Lisa Mishra, Sumukhi Suresh, Luke Kenny, Adinath Kothare, Alyy Khan, Yashaswini Dayama, Shivani Tanksale, Neena Kulkarni, Jagdish Rajpurohit & others
(Used under special arrangement with NIT)
