A new season of ‘Potluck’ is here, and this time it promises to be even spicier. Is the show, which seems to be an Indianised take on ‘Home Economics’, actually worth your time? Or can you simply skip it? Read on the full review to find out.
Director: Rajshree Ojha
Cast: Cyrus Sahukar, Ira Dubey, Jatin Sial, Kitu Gidwani, Shikha Talsania, Siddhant Karnick, Harman Singha, Saloni Khanna, Sonali Sachdeva, Varun Sood, Naksh, Aashvi Negi, Myra Rajpal
Available On: Sony Liv
Duration: 8 Episodes, Around 30 Minutes Each
The second season of ‘Potluck’ delves deeper into the Shastri family's lives and examines some contemporary dilemmas that affect many families today. Nothing seems to be the same as it was before, whether it’s Pramila (Kitu Gidwani) striving to rediscover herself at the age of 60 or Vikrant (Cyrus Sahukar) taking on the role of a household manager. On one hand, Nidhi (Saloni Khanna) is perplexed by the predictability of her existence, while Akansha (Ira Dubey) struggles to balance work and home. When Dhruv (Harman Singha) loses his job, he finds himself on uncharted grounds, and Prerna (Shikha Talsania) has trouble moving her and Aalim’s (Siddhant Karnick) relationship forward. Yet as is customary for this family, they come together and ensure that ‘It's all okay’. But does it remain all okay always? Well, you’ll have to watch the show to find out.
Kitu Gidwani seems to have lost oodles of weight and justified her character’s desire to be a beauty pageant winner at the age of 60. She has played the character so brilliantly that it just makes you wonder why we don’t get to see her that often onscreen like she used to in the 1990s and 2000s. Her performance is effortless, to say the least.
Saloni Khanna also leaves a lasting impression with her control-freak attitude. She fits the role so perfectly that it would be difficult for you to imagine that character being played by anyone else. The way she brings in the kiddish stubbornness to the way she gets excited when she is happy to the way she gets pissed off when she is unhappy with her mother – all of them is just pure excellence onscreen.
Needless to say, Jatin Sial, as the patriarch of the Shastri family, picks up the quirkiness from where he left in season one. He is funny yet incorrigible at times, but there are no instances where you would not feel like loving this character. Jatin Sial brings in that familiar feeling that every young adult in today’s times feels for their just-retired parents. He simply makes the character so real-life-like that you would invariably start seeing your own father in Govind Shastri.
The rest of the cast have played their parts justifiably well, but there hasn’t been a standout performance among any of them.
The best part about Ashwin Lakshmi Narayan and Gaurav Lulla’s writing of the show is that you know that it’s an Indianised version of the Hollywood show ‘Home Economics’ but the stories are so very different from each other that you would never understand. Just the basic premise of a family with 3 siblings coming together for a meal together every now and then, and their relationship with money is taken from ‘Home Economics’. But the everyday situations are so Indianised that you would irrevocably keep feeling that this happened to me also. Full marks for disguising it so brilliantly.
Rajshree Ojha, as the director, has managed to keep the simplicity of the show intact. Considering that it’s a sitcom with fixed sets and locations to shoot, and you can’t go out too much from your zone of comfort, she has managed to get the vibe perfectly. She keeps it jovial throughout and dips in the emotions wherever need be.
The background score of the show is something that keeps you hooked, and makes you laugh along with the characters and get emotional with them at the same time.
The cinematography is the only cause of concern for this show. It’s a sitcom with mostly indoor shoots, so the moment the shoot goes even a bit outdoors, it looks so over-the-top pretentious. Some of the scenes in the car looked so fake that the VFX artist should be fired right away.
The only other thing that hurts the show is the promotions by Sony Liv. The show has immense potential, and people in India love to see great sitcoms, and they don’t find too many options. Sadly, the platform didn’t do enough promotions to make the show as popular as their other shows like ‘Scam: 1992’ or ‘Gullak’. A bit more spending on the promotions could make ‘Potluck’ a flagship content for the platform, which fans would look forward to every year to see.
Yes
‘Potluck’s first season worked because of the characters. You fell in love with the characters which were so relatable and real-life-like. ‘Potluck 2’, however, is more about the relatable situations of a modern urban upper middle-class joint family. The situations are so apt that you would invariably feel like saying ‘Omg, this has happened to me as well’. In short, ‘Potluck 2’ is another round of a funny and relatable family drama. It’s sweet, simple and definitely a Must Watch. I am going with 3.5 stars.