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The first four episodes of ‘Showtime’, which we saw a few months back, promised to get us on the inner track of the Mumbai movie industry, which keeps us fascinated by both its shine and grime, but didn’t really give us anything we haven’t seen before. It was all meh.
There was one element in the Dharma Productions show– the dodgy pact between some producers and some reviewers in which an exchange of cash or kind led to positive reviews– which felt fresh. This is something we’ve been hearing about, and no one had shown it in the explicit way that ‘Showtime’ did.
If this element, which felt very meta, had been followed through, it would have added fresh flavour to the proceedings, which gave us two characters fighting over a crumbing studio, by trying to build on old ties and forge fresh alliances in an industry whose wheels are oiled by money.
But that is quickly dispensed with. There’s also an attempt to send up the kind of filmmaking which leads to awards, or is it a send-up at all? Everything else — old Bollywood with its ‘outdated ethics’ and new Bollywood with its single-minded insistence on the box office and nothing else, with Raghu Kapoor (Emraan Hashmi) and newbie Mahika Nandy (Mahima Makwana) at two ends of the spectrum — felt familiar.
The last three episodes are more of the same. Top star Armaan Khanna (Rajeev Khandelwal) is still casting about to remain on top. His wife and one time big star in her own right (Shriya Saran) is still intent upon making a ‘comeback’. Raghu’s squeeze-turned-romantic interest (Mouni Roy) is busy battling trolls to stay sane. Vijay Raaz’s oily producer is beset with a classic case of ‘putramoh’, wanting to launch his son. And Raghu and Mahika are on a stop-start dance to keep their business going. But nothing — the backstabbings, betrayals, backdoor deals — grabs our attention or interest. Even Emraan Hashmi, who is capable of stealing many a show, is defeated by the writing.
There truly is no business like show business. But this Showtime is slack-show, slacker-tell.
Showtime
Directors: Mihir Desai, Archit Kumar
Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Rajeev Khandelwal, Shriya Saran, Mouni Roy, Mahima Makwana, Vijay Raaz
Rating – 2
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