This Showtime is complete yet incomplete, folks!

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I hope that someone knows, or at least has an idea, when the next season is due. I am talking about the production team and the OTT platform! Even if us, the poor audience, the raison d’etre for this cinematic work, remain woefully in the dark.

Dharmatic Entertainment has spun a fairly riveting, if undistinguished, series in Showtime some months ago. However, in the best traditions of Disney+Hotstar (who are now always in Star TV mode!), even 7 episodes of average length were split into two abrupt installments. After the four episodes, we now have three more. And still the ‘epic’ saga is far from complete.

The script reminds us of the family soaps of yore with politics (not of the actual political variety but in terms of deviousness!) that ruled two, three and even four decades back. Of course, in keeping with trends on the OTT platforms, we have expletives and scenes of making out added. And the normal quotient of double-speak, betrayals, intrigue, what-have-you and others are all included, of course.

In the first four episodes, the writers covered quite a bit of (real and exaggerated) issues that abound in the film industry. Over here, it is more to do with the ups and downs between the owner of Viktory Studios, Mahika (Mahima Makwana), it’s ex-owner Raghu Khanna (Emraan Hashmi), film star Armaan Singh (Rajeev Khandelwal), his betrayed wife Mandira (Shriya Saran), actress and Raghu’s girlfriend, Yasmin (Mouni Roy), who is pregnant with his child, Mahika’s boyfriend, Prithvi (Vishal Vashishth) and her new flame, acclaimed writer-director Satya (Neeraj Madhav).

The stage is set for super confrontations between the various characters above, and how the unscrupulous Saajan Morarka, an industrialist and alcohol baron (Vijay Raaz) attempts to manipulate Raghu as well as Mahika, so that his son, Montu (Lovekesh Solanki) gets a break as a hero in a big film.

But as I said, only the stage is set! Nothing has really happened, but for Mahika and Raghu trying to bury their differences (Raghu is Viktor’s son, while Mahika is Viktor’s granddaughter through his first wife, who is bequeathed the studios that should have been his, had he not antagonized his old father). After all, Raghu and Mahika now have to deal with common foes who are stymieing their (individual) progress. This is a dramatically interesting, even if predictable, turn, but only Dharmatic Entertainment and Disney+Hotstar know when we viewers will get the answers to “What Happens Next?”

As always recently (I will not repeat the multiple examples across genres), the platform ‘serializes’ its series, making us restive, and more than a little irritated. A seven-episode series was acceptable, as the conclusion at the end is definite, and we could have waited for a Season 2 even for a long time (as with many such shows). But this needless chasm in time within the same storyline jars—as always. Where was the need to split a season by having a gap of four months?!!

The performances are seasoned of course, but again they are nothing great. In fact, nothing distinguishes the acting from the previous (half-) season, so that I can take the justified liberty of quoting from my March 2024 review of the first part of Showtime! Here goes:

“Mahima Makwana as Mahika is extremely effective, and she looks the part of a cute and ardent journalist suddenly thrown into a world of which she had only limited knowledge, being on the fringe. Emraan Hashmi plays the arrogant and brash film magnate to perfection. Rajeev Khandelwal as Armaan Singh gets the vanity and insecurity right, but is yet not convincing enough as a superstar. Shriya Saran as his wife and Mouni Roy as Raghu’s girlfriend have sketchy roles, but Mouni fares better. Denzil Smith as Viktor’s loyal employee and Vishal Vashistha also as Viktor’s employee and writer and now Mahika’s boyfriend are good. Neeraj Madhav as Sathya shines.”

Naseeruddin Shah, who had an important cameo in Part 1, is seen only in flashback in Part 2. Vijay Raaz has a far bigger role here and is effective.

Everything else is similar to Part 1, even the irritating ads that seemingly crop up every five minutes, and increase the length of each episode. But sadly, this part, for the many reasons described above, gets only pass marks.

Rating: **1/2 

Disney+Hotstar present Dharmatic Entertainment’s Showtime  Created by: Sumit Roy Directed by: Mihir Desai & Archit Kumar  Written by: Sumit Roy, Lara Chandni, Jehan Handa, Aalisha Sheth & Mithun Gangopadhyay  Music: Anand Bhaskar  Starring: Naseeruddin Shah, Emraan Hashmi, Mahima Makwana, Rajeev Khandelwal, Mouni Roy, Shriya Saran, Neeraj Madhav, Vishal Vashishta, Denzil Smith, Vijay Raaz, Gurpreet Saini, Lovkesh Solanki, Shataf Figar, Lillete Dubey & others