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Indian Express

The Royals review: Ishaan Khatter, Bhumi Pednekar series struggles for air under all that costumery

The prince and the showgirl. He is royalty, she is middle-class. He rides horses on the beach, sculpted bare chest a-gleam. She's shiny too, but more from the plebeian pursuit of running. Cool tracks, though, and very sculpted too, but of course, chalk and cheese. Aviraaj Singh (Ishaan Khatter) and Sophia Kanmani Shekhar (Bhumi Pednekar) spark, clash, part, meet again. You know the drill; classic rom com territory. Add in big baubles and bigger palaces, and the full Rajasthan rajasi retinue, with the the constant flurry of hukum, khammaghani, leheriya headgear, in place. Array this lot against a self-made young woman, who wants to carve a connection between the royals and the commoners, as the CEO of her ethical business-practice start-up. Bung in the problems of holding on to creaky legacy, as well as back-stabbing partners, smirking angel investors, raucous polo games, jealous lovers, Masterchef-knock-off cook-offs, gay Maharajas, and more that I'm sure I'm missing, to make up eight episodes of 'The Royals'. Looks like the Rajasthan Royals are having a moment, not that they ever really fell off the map. In last week's Balaji-produced 'Kull', the royals were handed out a slate of dysfunctional families, illegitimate offspring and dark secrets. This is broadly, give or take, what you get in 'The Royals', co-created by Rangita and Ishita Pritish Nandy, and developed and written by Neha Veena Sharma. Except this one is determinedly sunnier, taking care to contain its conflicts to well-appointed board rooms, drawing rooms and bedrooms (psst, lots of action on that score). But this handsomely-produced royals-navigating-the-pulls-and-pushes-of-modernity struggles for air under all that elaborate costumery, with characters sitting around in heavy jewellery even when they are at breakfast. You wish their emotions broke through a little more, along with their perfect hair-and-makeup, which could have pushed past the staginess: their nick-names — Fizzy for Adhiraj, Diggy for younger brother Digvijay (Samat) and Jinnie for sister Divyaranjini (Trehan) have more zing than the scenes they are in. There's also the matter of the Rajkumar and Aam Kumari who have more going on with other people in the cast, than with each other. Khatter had more bite in his small part in the Nicole Kidman starrer 'The Perfect Couple': here, his shirt is off more than it's on, and it is all very eye-catching, but all that coupling with Pednekar doesn't really get as steamy as it should have. She works hard too, but whoever came up with 'Work Potato', the name of her company? No, not cute. And did we really have to get an explainer on 'situationship'? Zeenat Aman, as the grand old matriarch, is a casting coup, but manages more effortless connection in her real-life Instagram posts. Used better, Zeenie Baby jaisa-koi-nahin would have shown us real rizz: where's the sexy-and-wise silver fox who could have made everything better? The Royals trailer: There's more sizzle between the middle-aged Rajmata (Tanwar) and her on-and-off partners. Samat and Trehan come off well, as do Chunky Panday as an ageing Bollywood hero, Adinath Kothare as the moneyman, Jagdish Purohit as loyal retainer; the supporting cast is large, and many of them do their job well. 'The Royals' needed sharper, felt writing. When a character exhorts a bunch of influencers, 'do 'Gram the hell out of us', it says more about the intention — and the potential audience — of the series than anything else. The Royals cast: Bhumi Pednekar, Ishaan Khatter, Zeenat Aman, Sakshi Tanwar, Vihaan Samat, Kavya Trehan, Adinath Kothare, Sumukhi Suresh, Lisa Mishra, Nora Fatehi, Chunky Pandey, Dino Morea, Milind Soman, Shivani Tanksale, Jagdish Purohit The Royals director: Priyanka Ghose and Nupur Asthana The Royals rating: 2 stars