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There are real movie celebrities doing walk-ons (who’d say no to Karan Johar), the show looks all glossy and glamorous, but the plot is confined to the tug of war between Raghu and Mahika, observes Deepa Gahlot.
There was no reason to break Showtime into two parts; it wasn’t a mystery that people would wait up months to see who the culprit turned out to be.
Created by Sumit Roy, produced by Dharmatic, directed by Mihir Desai and Archit Kumar, the series (on Disney+Hotstar) is an insider’s look at the Hindi film industry, which is mostly fictional, but throws in enough nuggets for the viewer to play guess who while watching the overwrought drama about the secret lives of movie celebrities.
The first part of Season One had a really interesting plot device — Viktor Khanna (Naseeruddin Shah), the veteran head of Viktory Studios, dies by suicide, choosing as his heir not his ambitious son Raghu (Emraan Hashmi), but the grand-daughter whose existence nobody knew of.
Mahika Nandy (Mahima Makwana) is the offspring of his estranged daughter, a ‘junior film critic’ with a Web site, that has just decimated Raghu’s latest film.
Viktor cuts Raghu out of his will, because the son does not abide by his guiding principle — that cinema is ‘dharm‘ not ‘dhanda‘.
Industry folk always say that film-making is not a game, and critics should step behind the scenes to know how the gears move.
So Mahika gets the opportunity of a lifetime to live the dream of so many aspirants, and in the first part of the season, she already starts to understand what it takes — dealing with finance, star tantrums, contract hassles, monstrous egos, snoopy media, and raging Raghu, who wants her to fail.
Mahika depends on the loyalty of her scriptwriter boyfriend Prithvi (Vishal Vashishtha) and Viktor Khanna’s old associate Deven (Denzil Smith), but the odds are against her.
Raghu plans to start his own studio and grab the projects under development at Viktory, one of them being a period movie, 1875, that needs the star power of Armaan Singh (Rajeev Khandelwal), and he is wooed by both Mahika and Raghu.
On the sidelines are Armaan’s wife (Shriya Saran) who wants to make a comeback, an ‘item’ girl and Raghu’s girlfriend Yasmin Ali (Mouni Roy), who wants to move up to lead parts.
Mahika wins one round, by getting Rustomji (Shataf Figar) to back 1875, and signs up Cannes-winning director Sathya (Neeraj Madhav) for the costume drama. But everything that could go wrong does, and the four-episode first part ended with an inevitable showdown between Mahika and Raghu.
There is actually very little happening in part two — Armaan and Mandira’s marriage was already cracking up, Raghu had humiliated Yasmin and sent her packing. So there’s not much left, except the gathering up of some threads and loosening of others for a possible Season Two.
The seedy Agra moneybag Sajan Murarka (Vijay Raaz), who wants to launch his loutish son, was introduced earlier — he plays a bigger, more destructive part in the remaining three episodes.
Enforcement Directorate raids, cancel culture and social media trolling that almost drives a character to suicide, make a topical appearance too, but seem to be added on because the plor was drying up.
Emran Hashmi — brash, supercilious, without a diplomatic bone in his body — is made to look villainish, but he is actually the most watchable and even likeable character in Showtime because he knows what he wants and refuses to play games.
Vijay Raaz is the only other actor in the cast, who plays his role with understanding and confidence. The ridiculous, over the top Diwali party scene works because Sajan does not think there is anything to be ashamed about in flaunting wealth and buying his way into the film industry.
Seen together all seven episodes present a view of the industry supposedly authentic, because the people involved in the making ought to know, so the audience imagines there must be in-jokes and bits that only those who work in the industry would be privy to.
There are real movie celebrities doing walk-ons (who’d say no to Karan Johar), the show looks all glossy and glamorous, but the plot is confined to the tug of war between Raghu and Mahika.
There is a lot more to Bollywood than the unguarded glimpses Showtime offers. But then, the fact is also that the mystique of the movies lies in audiences guessing but not really knowing the inner circle sturm und drang, never mind what the stars’ PR teams put out on social media.
Showtime Season 1 Part 2 streams on Disney+Hotstar
Showtime Season 1 Part 2 Review Rediff Rating:
