Never Ending Movie Carnival
Never Ending Movie Carnival
Showtime review: of nepotism, fakeism karma from the house of Dharma?!
What: Showtime – it’s time to get back at nepotism and the ugliness behind the colourful glossiness of Bollywood by none other than Karan Johar - infamous for promoting nepotism in Bollywood.
Showtime synopsis
A young entertainment journalist Mahika Nandy (Mahima Makwana) pans the movie of top producer Raghu Khanna aka RK (Emraan Hashmi) which leads to ruckus, resulting in Mahika losing her job for spreading the negativity and not obeying to the demands of the production house.
RK is the son of legendary film maker Vicktor Khanna aka VK (Naseeruddin Shah) – the founder of VK Studios. The retired VK one day expresses a desire to meet Mahika. The next day VK expiries, leaving a will that turns the world of RK and the film industry upside down.
The ‘outsider’ Mahika gets the charge of VK studios legacy and suddenly the famous ‘insider’ showman RK the son of the legendary VK becomes an ‘outsider’.
A power struggle begins between RK and Mahika that shakes the film industry. everybody is dreaming of wanting their cake and having it too including superstar Armaan (Rajeev Khandelwal), a dancer aspiring to be a heroine Yasmin Ali (Mouni Roy), an ex-superstar making a comeback Mandira (Shreya Saran) and a budding writer Prithvi (Vishal Vasistha)
So, a show on nepotism, fakeism from the production house owned by Karan Johar who is the infamous flag bearer of nepotism in Bollywood.
Mirror Mirror on the wall who is the fakest and ugly of us all. When it comes to highlighting Bollywood’s prejudiced ecosystem, in the big screen no one has come close to Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Luck By Chance’ and on OTT ‘Jubliee’ will remain the blockbuster for years to come.
Coming back to the attempt by the erstwhile icon of nepotism who is famous for his glam gloss and what not to showcase the ugly side of Bollywood and while doing it deliver a befitting reply to the haters and cry for nepotism, the result that comes across is considerably less exciting and more megalomaniacal, than imagined.
Look – we are exposing ourselves
Look – how mean and manipulative we are
And
Look – its talent that matters in the end no matter you are an insider or outsider. Can’t you see an outsider Shah Rukh Khan made life of an insider filmmaker like KJO. KKHH (Kya Kya Hota Hai) tumhein kya pata, Showtime dekho lagaega jhatka.
But the thing is, in order to get the ugly side of the Tinseltown right, the creator Sumit Roy, the directors Mihir Desai and Archit Kumar underline the sad fact that something about Bollywood still remains wrong and it will be forever.
No am not talking about extra martial affairs, sex, drugs (this happens in every industry) am talking about disregard for genuine artiste, treating media as their postmasters, star power, groupism etc etc.
Just to add more sensationalism, the writers add gaalis (cuss words) every now and then. The bunch consists of the creator Sumit Roy, Jehan Handa, Aalisha Sheth, Lara Chandni, Mithun Gangopadhyay, Karan Sharma in this first set of four episodes.
Honestly, the public in general is not much bothered about the dark ugly side of the entertainment industry. otherwise, Luck By Chance would have been a big hit.
Dirty Picture and Om Shanti Om were success because of the ‘entertainment’ quotient and in that sense ‘Showtime’ has something to offer but that’s not enough. After two episodes it became predictable for me.
Performances
Emraan Hashmi is good but he gives too much gaalis
Naseeruddin Shah is routine
Mouni Roy is fine in a better written role.
Mahima Makwana leaves an impression.
Shriya Saran is fine
Rajeev Khandelwal is good as usual.
Vishal Vashistha is noteworthy
Showtime – Final words
There is a saying in Hindi – koyle ke dalali mein haath bhi kale hote hai. When the biggest showman of Bollywood RK RajKapoor exposed Zeenat Aman’s body in ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’ he was criticised.
The most notable comment came from a prominent Hindi satirist Sharad Joshi, he said, “ Satyam Shivam Sundaram mein Raj Kapoor Zeenat Aman ko expose karne ke chakkar mein khud expose ho gaye”.
Toh kya Showtime mein Bollywood ko expose karne mein….
Going with 2 stars
Showtime is streaming on Disney + Hotstar from March 08, 2024.
A child born from life & fed by cinema. A filmi keeda from child & a film journalist for the last fifteen years. a father, seeker, foodie who loves crooning bollywood melodies twitter.com/cineblues More By vishal verma