Latest news with #Katarias
Indian Express
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Bakaiti review: A patchy family drama that struggles to rise above the noise
The Ghaziabad-based Katarias have a sole earning member. Ajay (Rajesh Tailang) is a lawyer whose earnings, and patience, is stretched thin by the antics of his permanently bickering teenage children, Naina (Tanya Sharma) and her younger brother Bharat (Aditya Shukla). Ajay's wife Sushma (Sheeba Chadha) handles the house, one eye on the never-ending work in the kitchen, and another on the sewing machine, which has been lying neglected for years. What if she opens a longed-for boutique? That would bring in much-needed extra cash. The kids join in, with a couple of madcap schemes. But nothing works. The squabbling siblings have to share a room, while the one that's freed up, is rented out. The tenant (Keshav Sadhna) turns out to be a good-looking fellow, whom Naina starts batting her eyelids at. Turns out that he has troubles of his own, revealed in a most unconvincing manner. The nicest thing one can say about Bakaiti is that the seven episodes are mercifully short, and could have been scrunched into half that, especially when the set-up is nothing but repetitive loops: how many heated exchanges can you hear between brother and sister without them sounding the same? The strongest elements of a slight series like this one comes up for air only once in a while: how a family of four (five if you count Sushma's always-on-the-phone father, played by Ramesh Rai) in these times finds it hard to manage on one income, how higher education of the kind that Naina has set her heart on, can get them out of the rut, and how hard it can be to part with ancestral property, something that Ajay's younger brother (Parvinder Jit Singh) keeps harping on. Also Read | Son Of Sardaar 2 movie review: Deepak Dobriyal runs away with Ajay Devgn-Mrunal Thakur's hare-brained comedy Both the actors who play the teenagers come into their own towards the end, with Tailang and Chadha holding the fort, building on the comfort they have created as a pair in Bandish Bandits. Bakaiti cast: Rajesh Tailang, Sheeba Chadha, Tanya Sharma, Aditya Shukla, Ramesh Rai, Parvinder Jit Singh, Keshav Sadhna Bakaiti director: Ameet Guptha Bakaiti rating: Two stars
Scroll.in
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
'Bakaiti' review: A cash-strapped family gets on each other's nerves – and yours too at times
The title makes it clear. No surprises here. Don't complain that you haven't been warned. Do remember to turn down the volume. The ZEE5 series Bakaiti – nonsensical talk in Hindi – is about the Katarias from Ghaziabad. That old saying about a family that fights together but stays together? It sounds rubbishy – bakaiti, actually – but applies to the Katarias, who start and end their days by sniping at each other at high volume. The lawyer Sanjay (Rajesh Tailang) lives in his ancestral house with his wife Sushma (Sheeba Chadha), daughter Naina (Tanya Sharma) and son Bharat (Aditya Shukla). There's also Sanjay's father-in-law (Ramesh Rai), who is addicted to his phone. The family is struggling financially, forcing Sanjay to rent out a room. His children react hysterically, but are forced to accept the inevitable. It helps that the tenant, Chirag (Keshav Sadhna), is personable, especially to Naina. But the problems are never-ending. Like the water meter in the house that nobody remembers to turn off on time, the Katarias have forgotten what it means to be a family. They turn on each other so vigorously that you expect a murder or two. The siblings are especially adept at slanging matches so loud, mean-spirited and hurtful that it's a marvel neither them falls to a brain aneurysm. Bakaiti, written by Gunjan Saxena, Neha Pawar and Sheetal Kapoor and with Arnav Chakravarty as showrunner, wants you to get behind the Katarias despite their nerve-shredding behaviour. The creators and director Ameet Guptha firmly believe that even as the characters explode and implode in flamboyant fashion, they have enough love among themselves to rally when the muck unerringly hits the fan. Sanjay's woes are tied up with his terrible equation with his brother Ajay (Parvinder Jit Singh). When they share the same room, another battlefront opens up. It's all quite exhausting – the eardrum-shattering squabbles, the overwrought emotions, the unavoidable suspicion that this lot is better off without each other. The Katarias' claim to redemption is questionable. What the seven-episode Bakaiti does well is to reveal how a low bank balance can emotionally bankrupt a family. Very few shows or films are exploring the harsh effects of low income on the average Indian family. Beneath Bakaiti 's fussy comedy simmers the immense distress that is brought on by forced sacrifices and compromises, academic dreams shot to bits, regular reminders of impending doom. Sheeba Chadha and Rajesh Tailang are typically solid – Chadha is especially fantastic in a scene where she goes after her children. Tanya Sharma and Aditya Shukla turn out to be the surprise package. Although Shukla's Bharat initially appears thuggish and obnoxious, and Sharma's Naina flies off the handle too often, their equation is believable, touching and the source of occasional hope. Play
