The Suite Life Of Karan And Kabir

Cast: Shruti Seth,Daman Baggan,Siddharth Thakkar and Namit Shah

The Suite Life of Karan and Kabir is an Indian adaptation of Disney’s 2005 show,The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. It’s about twin brothers,Karan and Kabir who live with their single mother,Priti Jaiswal,in a five star hotel. She works there as an assistant manager and as part of her perks,has got a suite on the “23rd floor” to live in which doubles up as their home. K2 are precocious who are always upto some mischief or the other. While their intentions are often noble — like in the first episode,the two sneak into a private wedding taking place in the hotel ball room to click photographs because they have heard the wedding pictures could fetch them a neat sum and they could give that money to their cash-strapped mother — they end up creating more nuisance for their mother and the hotel.

Since the show is about the two brothers,the chemistry they share is important and thankfully,they pull it off with ease. They are cute in parts. A few more episodes and they would just fit into the parts effortlessly. It’s a sitcom and though the canned laughter is grating,unnecessary and every two seconds,we wish the lines were funnier,consistently.

Since all the writers had to do was adapt it to our desi palate (everything else is the same right from the key characters to the characterisation),we wish the lines and situations were original (Minty Tejpal,a former film critic is credited with the adaptation). Like the boys passing wind because they had mooli ke parathe is neither funny nor original!

Most of the lines are the ‘where have we heard this’ kind and the rest of it is juvenile,yes,even by the standards of small children,the show’s target audience.

Today’s children are exposed to a whole lot of things,so maybe a bit of imagination and inspired writing will take the show a few notches higher.

The saving grace are the two kids…Namit Shah (Kabir) and Siddharth Thakkar (Karan),cute and innocent,mischievous and bratty,they make the show watchable. Shruti Seth as their harrowed mother is sweet,effortless and so is Daman Baggan as Maansingh,the hotel’s know-it-all manager.

Verdict: It may not be the perfect show for kids but is entertaining in parts.