Bakaiti Review: Sheeba Chadha, Rajesh Tailang's Show Makes You Miss Your Family - Just A Little More

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6 days ago

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Bakaiti Review: This family drama set in Ghaziabad, focuses on the Kataria family. Starring Sheeba Chadha and Rajesh Tailang, it portrays middle-class chaos with warmth and humour.
Sheeba Chadha, Rajesh Tailang's Bakaiti would tug at your heartstrings.
Bakaiti Review: What do Instagram and real life have in common? Err, nothing. You see those dreamy morning routines where a person wakes up, stretches in bed, and gets up to make some tea with a retro song playing in the background before they become reachable to the world. Peaceful kind of mornings exist only if you stay alone. Try finding a quiet start to the family in an average middle-class family, and you'll understand the irony.
The day for an average Indian family begins with the water pump screaming at the top of its battery-operated voice, demanding to be shut. Your mother starts washing (read slamming) the utensils, complaining how no one helps her in the family. Your father, unabashed by the surrounding noise, reads the headlines of the day, while you and your sibling fight over an issue that you will probably forget by the afternoon. That's exactly how Bakaiti starts, a classic middle-class family in Ghaziabad, dealing with life's challenges together.
Bakaiti drops in at a time when thrillers have taken over the OTT space. In the midst of all things serious, we do like a little happy family drama that would make us feel closer to home. The story begins with the Katarias, a middle class Indian family, trying to make some more money by renting out one of the rooms belonging to two children in the house. Sheeba Chadha (Sushma Kataria) and Rajesh Tailang (Sanjay Kataria) play on-screen couple for the third time after Mirzapur and Bandish Bandits. Known for bringing their own freshness to their characters, the duo would remind you of your parents every passing second on the show. Tanya Sharma and Aditya Shukla play their children, Naina and Bharat, respectively. All sister-brother duos would hard relate to their constant bickering and screaming at all times.
What works for Bakaiti is the simplicity of the story. Middle-class families in India have their own set of challenges. The makers chose one – how families always lookout for that extra mode of income by utilising their resources or space. How families, realise their biggest strengths and think of modes to monetise it. As simple as taking tutions or running a makeshift tailoring business, or renting out an extra room or a floor to take some load off from the family's breadwinner.
When Naina and Bharat are told that they have to share one room so that the other room can be put up on rent, some screaming-on-top-of-lungs and convincing follows. They are every sibling duo ever who can't do without each other, yet can't stand the presence of one another. They think of ways to start a business with zero investment to help their father, a lawyer, financially by offering coaching and convincing their mother to start a boutique so that one of their rooms isn't taken away. Whether that works or not, is left for you to watch.
Bakaiti, is a colloquial Hindi term commonly used in North India, especially in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It means pointless chatter, exaggerated storytelling, or loud, boastful talk that often lacks substance. Someone indulging in bakaiti is usually seen as wasting time talking nonsense or trying to sound impressive without real meaning or purpose. Sometimes, those loud, fruitless conversations, aka bakaiti, is beautiful. It reminds us that we all may have our challenges, but there are times when life is not to be taken seriously and the voice in our head is best left shut – just like the screaming water pump.
Bakaiti has its loopholes, though they're easy to overlook. At times, certain segments feel stretched. Multiple episodes revolving around the same 'to rent or not to rent' storyline come across as repetitive. The makers could have picked a few issues from the wide range of middle-class problems. Comedy-based family dramas aren't meant to be fast-paced, but they can certainly offer more variety. Some dialogues or in-between segments also seem incessant.
All in all, director Ameet Guptha does a decent job at making a show that relies little on problems and more on emotions. For those living outside of your home, the show will feel like a warm hug and make you want to move into those noisy chambers with your family. For those who deal with this on a daily basis, the show serves as the perfect watch – offering not just a guide on how to navigate life, but also a relatable on-screen reflection of their reality.
Bakaiti is a show you can easily binge in one go; one that makes you believe you'd do anything for your family in a heartbeat. Relatable, no?
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