Sunflower Web Review: Seedy

Sunflowercreator Vikas BahlCast Sunil Grover Ranvir ShoreyOn ZEE5Rating 15No seriously what did I just watch Why donrsquot you so you can please let me know Treat that as a recco if you may In general a feature film no matter how bad has a beginning middle and endWith a terrible webseries or television as it were there is a beginning alright but middle after middle after middle with hours feeling like days Until you finally hit the end of whatrsquos been an excruciating experiencemdashonly compensated for the fact that at least yoursquore not inside a dark hall tolerating a visual assault on the sensesWatch VideoThis series surely has a beginning In the first scene itselfmdashone morning a man is murdered by his neighbour who injects poison into coconut water left at the door Nutty as that sounds you look askance at what happens nextmdashthat is over eight episodes of roughly 40plus minutes eachBecause nothing really doesmdashbeyond a series of characters with no purpose jokes with no punchlines or landing space and drama without a point Unless therersquos some magic realism that missed me Herersquos what we do know The show is named after a housing society called SunflowerThere is a stuffy committee of residents in here that interviews candidates all through the show rejecting potential tenants on the basis of their life choicesmdashunmarried married too many times single etc In the writerrsquos head the housing society is a clever metaphor for a society at large and in turn the nation itself Good on them But what about that murder What about it besides the busy Bombay police that has nothing better to do but chill all day on the solitary case including order Chinese food for the suspect The investigating cop apparently rotates between multiple sex workersA frisky employee is desperate to tap the first man she can find in office Therersquos a housewife in satin whose life is centred on bedding her husbandmdashwhen not making a drink for him And an assortment of equally horny and hohum couples heterosexual and otherwise The strange mental gaze doesnrsquot spare househelps eitherThe rest of the pages in a nonexistent script are filled with farting sound British accent Tamilian twang shudh Hindi and general gibberish for conversations Vikas Bahl is separately credited for story screenplay dialogue and as director producer plus creator of this seriesmdashshouldrsquove been for lsquoideal audiencersquo as wellBahl in many ways is peak Bollywood Queen Super 30 Which explains the performers hersquos managed to line up for his webOTT debut which is aesthetically so totally badTV like I mean just glance at the castcreditsStarting with the comic star Sunil Grover Therersquos a permanent smirk on his face that naturally lends itself to humour even if not intended You can practically make him do anything funnymdashas hersquos been doing since Jaspal Bhattirsquos TV shows in the early rsquo90s although he found fame with skits on Kapil Sharma show only decades laterHere Grover is prancing around naked because someone or the other flicks his clothes He plays an incel imbecile who sells beauty products for a living Thatrsquos not at all Look at the rest Therersquos Ranvir Shorey who practically cracks every part hersquos in whether or not itrsquos written well or at allOr Ashish Vidyarthi the deadly veteran from Drohkaal 1994 and Iss Raat Ki Subah Ki Nahin 1996 bumbling around spouting inanities here Mukul Chadda the excellent find from Indian version of Office Also spotted Sameer KhakharmdashNandu from Nukkad of the rsquo80smdashpoor old manrsquos being made to pass wind in publicGlad everyone got gainful employmentincome during the pandemic Which is when this series was shot and also when desimainstream audiences discovered OTTs at a pace that wouldrsquove taken more years Unlike in the US with HBO etc where TV series went through a dramatic upgrade in the late rsquo90s it is Bombayrsquos filmmakers whorsquove sort of led the new wave on Indian webOTT since TV professionals had little experience with limited edition quality fiction Therefore my expectations and the devastating disappointment thatrsquos followed Is this the worst piece of web content to come out of Bollywood Maybe Sirish Kunderrsquos randomroastworthy semisurreal Mrs Serial Killer 2020 on Netflix comes closeBut that was a film And Citizen Kane in comparison You could still follow a storymdashbad good ugly long stretched ludicrously farfetched With this one you only go ldquoPar yeh ho kya raha hairdquomdashbefore you go to the next episode As should you and let me knowAlso Read Sunil Grover While choosing a project I choose stuff that wont let me sleep