After two sparkling episodes – Ed Sheeran and then Anil Kapoor-Farah Khan – The Great Indian Kapil Show was back to its lacklustre ways this weekend. Janhvi Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao were the guests on the 10th episode of the Netflix comedy series, to promote their movie Mr. & Mrs. Mahi. But it quickly turned into a comedy of errors.
Stale jokes are as much a staple of The Great Indian Kapil Show as Archana Puran Singh’s signature laugh. Both are like leftovers from earlier episodes or previous shows.
The Mr. & Mrs. Mahi episode was peppered with the stereotypical pati-patni shtick where the wife is the villain of the piece. In the good ol’ days, Sumona Chakraborty used to clap back at Kapil for his wife-roasting spree. But this time, the women on the show — Janhvi and Archana Puran Singh (not counting Krushna Abhishek as Mona, please!) — just chuckled and let the roast simmer.
Kapil started with a less-than-stellar stand-up routine, which quickly transitioned into a short sketch with Janhvi and Rajkummar as Mr. and Mrs. Mahi. But before that could really take off, Kapil swooped in to bring them onto the main stage.
After a lukewarm introduction of Janhvi and Rajkummar, the talk show segment kicked off. He shared stories about his middle-class upbringing in Gurgaon, including a ‘TV show’ scam he once fell for, while she reminisced about her mother, Sridevi, who had hoped she would become a doctor.
The sole newsworthy highlight of the show popped up when Kapil asked Jahnvi, “Aap same interest waale life partner ko choose karna pasand karengi ya jis ‘Shikhar’ par aap hain aap ussi mein khush hain?”, referring to her rumoured beau, Shikhar Pahariya, a businessman and polo player.
The actress blushed, smiled and confirmed: “Jis bhi Shikhar par main hoon wahan bahut khush hoon.”
Just when one thought the conversation would flow, Rajkummar and Janhvi were interrupted by seen that-heard those acts. From a round of dumb charades to a pointless segment where men from the audience lined up for Janhvi’s ‘swayamvar’, it all went from #cough to #cringe.
Krushna Abhishek and Kiku Sharda came up with an unexpected love story between their characters, Mona and Chef Dhaniya Lal. They did their best with the outdated material, but we really couldn’t be bothered to even smirk, especially at the sexist jokes that potholed the segment.
In the slog overs, Sunil Grover showed up to save the match from being a washout. His impersonation of Navjot Singh Sidhu was spot-on – clearly the cricketer-politician-commentator has not moved court to safeguard his “personality rights”, yet! – and he did manage to generate some laughs with his antics.
The next episode of The Great Indian Kapil Show features female sportspersons — Saina Nehwal, Sania Mirza, Mary Kom and Sift Kaur Samra. One can only hope some of the stale, sexist jokes on the show will be smashed, aced, punched or shot in Episode 11!
