Sandwiched Forever
U/A: Rohan Sippy
On: SonyLiv
Cast: Aahana Kumra, Kunaal Roy Kapur
Firstly you marvel at the number of people titled as creative bosses on this so called comedy show – the creator credit is to a media company; besides, there is a creative director, a show-runner, a series director, over and above whom is still the director, Rohan Sippy.
Guess it still takes a half-decent screenwriter rather than that many people to helm/lord over an eight-part series, going on for around 500 minutes, when not a single scene, dialogue or situation is even vaguely funny.
Of course, you can also overcompensate for it by wallpapering canned laughter, as they have, randomly over all those minutes, a’ la Seinfeld or Friends – except audience laughs on those top sit-coms, by the way, are real, with people actually seated in the stands, during shoots.
No chance of that happening here, since it looks like a series shot during pandemic/lockdown. This also explains a single set, all through, which are three apartments on the same floor – two of which are occupied by old parents, and the by third by their respective children (Aahana Kumra, Kunal Roy Kapur), who are newly married.
Walls in these flats are probably made of thermocol sheets, because neighbours can clearly hear each other from behind closed doors. Not that that would be necessary, since these are inconceivably pesky parents, poking their noses into every minute detail, by the minute, of their married kids’ daily lives-walking in and out of their apartment.
No, seriously, who are these imbecile folks? Where do they come from? Could spot Atul Kulkarni playing an ex-spy father being inspired by Robert De Niro in Meet The Parents. That apart, wherever they’re from, they certainly deserve space in an insane asylum.
How the young couple tolerates the parents remains the non-stop mystery, given the level of mental assault they seem to inflict on the audience’s senses. Have to say though, I sleep-watched through this show still, over a couple of days, while the actors were sleepwalking through their hare-brained parts in a non-humour ho-hum.
Maybe that’s got to do with the pleasant cast. What a waste of a stellar line-up, though. Would take these actors – especially the brilliant Zakir Hussain, in a rare comic role – in a play, any day. Any play. Okay, this is a play-not this one.
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