The Great Indian Kapil Show 10th episode first impression: Even Mr and Mrs Mahi can’t help Kapil Sharma score laughs

Editing woes have plagued The Great Indian Kapil Show from the get-go. Unlike the traditional television format where the show enjoyed a full 60 minutes or more, the constraints of Netflix’s time window force the makers to condense their sketches. Unfortunately, this often results in rushed and half-baked segments that leave a bad taste.

After Janhvi Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao’s underwhelming introduction, the talk show segment began. Rajkummar shared anecdotes about his middle-class life in Gurgaon and a scam he fell for. Janhvi talked about how her mother, Sridevi, had wanted her to become a doctor. Following this, Krushna Abhishek and Kiku Sharda took the stage, presenting an unexpected love story between their characters, Mona and Chef Dhaniya Lal. Sufficient time was dedicated to this sketch, and the two comedians did a respectable job with their characters, considering the dated material they were given. However, Janhvi remained unimpressed by the sexist jokes that permeated the segment.

Stars play a major role in making Kapil Sharma’s shows a hit, and this time was no different. Kapil relied on Janhvi and Rajkummar to make the episode engaging. It featured the actors playing dumb charades, followed by Kapil calling boys from the audience to try and woo Janhvi, only for him to poke fun at them. While this might have been funny a few years ago, it now came across as impolite and left both Janhvi and the audience embarrassed.

As the episode (thankfully) neared its end, Sunil Grover appeared as Navjot Singh Sidhu to help Kapil and his team with a spirited death-over cameo. But even he knew the game was unsalvageable. The show’s poor script, which should ideally be a meaty bat, felt like a stick in his hand — and he was clean-bowled on the first ball.

You can watch The Great Indian Kapil Show on Netflix.