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Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper: A Dark and Delicious Black Comedy!
Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper: A Dark and Delicious Black Comedy!
What: ‘Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper’ – a heady cocktail of sex, secrets and sinister superbly spearheaded by the supremely talented Manav Kaul.
Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper synopsis
Tribhuvan Mishra, who goes by the name CA Topper, is modern day Kaamdev. He understands women and more importantly, what they want. The unstated desire. Quite early in the show, his wife compliments him after making out that he is mind-blowing. If there’s a lovemaking competition, then he will win a gold medal!
Mishra (played by the supremely talented and underrated Manav Kaul), an otherwise incorrigibly honest Sarkari Karmchaari who works at Noida Town Planning board, exploits this quality of his to earn fast bucks in desperation when he slips into a deep financial crisis and no one from his close circle comes to his rescue – including his selfish and opportunist insurance agent brother-in-law, Shambhu and his wife, Shobha (played by Sumit Gulati and Shweta Basu Prasad).
CA topper turns into a gigolo, his secret profession flourishes and cash pours in. His credulous wife Ashoklata (Naina Sareen) who bakes delicious cakes also starts off with a bakery. But little does he know that the secret world of sex, lies and videotape will collide with Teeka Ram Jain (Shubrojyoti Barat), a Halwai, and his henchmen who run an underground assassin service with the façade of a sweet and savories shop when his Bolly-bug wife Bindi (Tilottama Shome) starts availing Mishra’s service.
CA Topper is written and directed by Puneet Krishna, who created the enchanting world of Amazon Prime Video’s ‘Mirzapur’. Krishna’s world building is nuanced and immaculate with a motley of atrangi characters – a term which the show limitlessly uses to describe something wild, bizarre and strange. He surrounds the eponymous protagonist with varied people from discrete surroundings and powers them with a localized lingo and mannerisms.
Be it the Halwai with a wicked underground machinery or the cop, Haider Ali (Faisal Malik) who always is after him and his samosas. He makes each of his characters delicious in this dark comedy. Teeka Ram’s trigger-happy, arithmetic-challenged henchmen – Lappu and Dhaincha (Amarjeet Singh and Ashok Pathak) are besties who not only squabble over their respective favorites Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan but can give their lives for a test of loyalty. Krishna and co-director Amrit Raj Gupta craft a consistently engaging narrative, transcending the compass of morality, with quirky characters and a barrage of maa-behen ki gaalis.
The show loses its flame and fervor during the last three episodes, and it would have been better if the editing scissors were used with precision. Nine episodes with each one running almost up to an hour exhausts the viewer in you, where you tend to lose the rhythm and momentum.
It’s the performances that redeems the tedium built after a brisky and intriguing beginning. Manav Kaul’s inherent decency in his demeanor makes Mishra endearing. Even his frailties look innocent. His scenes with his mentor, Desi Ghoda (an exciting Jitin Gulati) and his mother-in-law, Smt. Mandodari Pathak (Yamini Das) who always taunts him are superbly done. In one scene, Ashoklata narrates the compliments showered by his clients who happen to be sisters-in-laws and discover that they are availing him in common, and we see Mishra subtly basking in its glory. Kaul’s instinctive approach makes us realize the underratedness of the actor in him.
Tilottama is another wonderful actor in the arena who is fun to watch. Her Bindi is repressed with emotions. She yearns for intimacy – both physical and emotional but her husband is more focused on his insulin shots rather than the love shots. She represents emotional freedom and liberation, overcoming the barrier of moralities.
The show excels as a mixed bag of entertainment – Krishna’s world has both sulking gangsters and shooting common men.
Ahwaan Padhee, is an IT Techie/Business Consultant by profession and a film critic/cinephile by passion, is also associated with Radio Playback as well, loves writing and conducting movie quizzes. More By Ahwaan Padhee