Kanpur Waale Khuranas airs every weekend at 9:30 pm on Star Plus.What’s good about Star Plus’ new show Kanpur Waale Khuranas? It brings back the terrific performer Sunil Grover on the small screen. And what is the not-so-good part? That, the ace comedian is trying really, really hard to tickle the funny bone of the audience.
What Kanpur Waale Khuranas offers isn’t something we haven’t seen before. Kapil Sharma’s previous shows did it much better.
Making people laugh is difficult, no doubt. But half an hour into Kanpur Waale Khuranas, and I kept waiting for a chance to giggle.
Simmba actor-director duo Ranveer Singh-Rohit Shetty were the first guests on Kanpur Waale Khuranas.The show, set around a family, begins with ‘jijaji’ Sunil Grover, his ‘saalis’ and some sister-in-law jokes. Cut to actor Aparshakti Khurana introducing the new show to the audience from a stage setting. (Yes, Aparshakti replaced Kunal Khemu even before the show premiered!). There is even an ever-laughing Farah Khan (à la Navjot Singh Sidhu) as the ‘padosan’, for easy jokes on neighbours. No, even that doesn’t work here.
Kanpur Waale Khuranas, which is half enactment and half talk show, had Simmba director-actor duo Rohit Shetty and Ranveer Singh on its premiere episode. But, since the vibe of Kanpur Waale Khuranas is already so forced, both Rohit and Ranveer couldn’t save it with their camaraderie. While Rohit took some jokes on himself about breaking walls and making an entry in flying cars, Ranveer was welcomed with some not-so-appealing jokes about his marriage with Deepika Padukone and their family planning.
Kanpur Waale Khuranas offered an old format and laughs.Sunil’s chemistry with his onscreen wife Adaa Khan was on similar lines of Kapil and Sumona Chakravarti, where the former cracked demeaning jokes about her appearance and behaviour. Yes, Sunil did the same with Adaa too.
The Sunday episode saw Sonu Sood and Siddhartha Jadhav joining the team.
Some respite came when Ranveer opened up about his wedding, followed by his recreation of “Binte Dil” with Sunil Grover. Ali Asgar also evoked a few laughs.
For me, the only high point was Sunil aping Amitabh Bachchan’s Kaun Banega Crorepati avatar, making his guests play along, amid a lot of laughter.
Kanpur Waale Khuranas could do much better, given its talented cast also including Sugandha Mishra and Upasana Singh among others. From its jarring camera movement during enactments to the lame toilet jokes between the ‘jijaji’ and his ‘padosan ka ghar’, we can only hope the makers will try and improve things in the upcoming weeks.
