If you think about it, almost everything, including the pre-climax and climax, are predictable. If you ruminate even more, we find this to be like a typical Balaji soap on television with family intrigue and politics, and cusswords added in the name of freedom from censors on the web. Think deeper (if you will) and we find a needless insertion of what I now have started calling ‘The Great Gay Omnipresence-on-Web Syndrome’ where one principal character is homosexual. Needless again, of course. If he is shown fathering a child later, he could have well been shown as an infertile man treated for his ailment.
The Raisingghs are essentially the king of the domain and his three legal and one illegitimate siblings. Nimrat Kaur as Indrani is married to Vikramaditya (Suhaas Ahuja), the son of politician Jograaj (Rohit Tiwari), who is a close friend of the Chandra Pratap Raisinggh (Rahul Vohra), who is the ‘king’. The most pragmatic is Kavya (Ridhi Dogra). Their younger brother, Abhimanyu (Amol Parashar) is disliked by his father and so turns frustrated and deviant. Devoid also of motherly affection (she died during his birth—the reason for his father’s animosity), he calls Indrani ‘Maa’ (mother) as she has looked after, mollycoddled and pampered him endlessly. Kavya, whose friend Kabir (Arslan Goni) is filming the royal lives, hates Abhimanyu too.
The sole good Samaritan is eldest and illegit brother Brij (Gaurav Arora), who is victimized by the sisters, despite his helping them out, and detested by Abhimanyu. In the climax, he has a surprising metamorphosis.
One night, Chandra Pratap is found murdered in the swimming pool of their palace. The police are led by CBI officer Bhagwan Ramteke (Ankit Siwach), called specially from Mumbai to investigate the crime freely. As he faces autocratic ‘royal’ hurdles, he becomes ruthless in his contempt for the family. Meanwhile, a video reveals the true killer even as suspicion points at almost everyone. And then there is Chandra Pratap’s dark secret…
An interesting premise is stonewalled by inept and cliched scripting and the usual drama that reeks of artifice as well as trope-driven writing. Director Sahil Raza’s only plus point is the decent performances that he extracts from most actors.
Most, I said, not all! Suhaas Ahuja is like a poor man’s Jimmy Sheirgill and is awkward. Amol Parashar is at best okay in his mercurial negative role, and Nimrat Kaur often falters in the demanding portions. Ankit Siwach as the ace cop is again a washed-out version of Ranveer Singh! And from the rest, Ridhi Dogra and Gaurav Arora are good.
Overall, this royal-a-thon can be easily given a miss.
Rating: **
Jio Hotstar presents Balaji Digital’s Kull: The Legacy of the Raisingghs Produced by: Aparna Ramachandran, Gagan Anand, Baljit Singh C., Avnit Chadha, Kuljit Chadha, Tanveen Dugal, Ekta Kapoor & Shobha Kapoor Directed by: Sahir Raza Written by: Althea Kaushal, Simrit Shahi & Chiranjeevi Bajpai Music: Sanchit Choudhary Starring: Nimrat Kaur, Amol Parashar, Ridhi Dogra, Rahul Vohra, Gaurav Arora, Suhaas Ahuja, Rohit Tiwari, Arslan Goni, Ankit Siwach, Tarun Chaturvedi & others
