Kajol’s The Trial, Shahid Kapoor’s Farzi and Priyanka Chopra’s Citadel: The weakest web shows of 2023 had the biggest stars

Take, for example, the Indian version of ‘The Good Wife’: ‘The Trial’, toplined by Kajol, wasn’t terrible because of its leading lady who tried hard to be believable; it just didn’t get the balance between its star and the other actors right. Kajol is actor enough to be able to carry off tough scenes, but the series never really gets a chance to be impactful, because it is constantly worrying about how to buoy its lead.

Farzi

I had the same problem with ‘Farzi’, all about canny counterfeiters and smart artists, produced and directed by the prolific duo of Raj and DK. The top-billing went, quite rightfully, to Shahid Kapoor. And everything skewed in favour of Kapoor because he was the biggest Bollywood name in it.

The other actors, especially Vijay Sethupathi and the terrific Kay Kay were reduced to being supporting acts in the way they have always been in our mainstream movies.

This insistence of keeping the star at pole position seeping into a format which needs to be much more equitable and democratic for it to be effective, ruins it. Why is that so hard to understand?

Citadel

Actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden in a still from Citadel. (Photo: Instagram/CitadelonPrime)

Take another example. The beyond terrible spy saga‘Citadel’ – not exactly an ‘Indian’ series, with Russo Bros helming and Richard Madden headlining, but with Priyanka Chopra getting that all-important second billing, of course we will claim it as ours — did nothing ( except for that billing) for Chopra, nor did she do anything for it. If there had been anyone else in her place, it wouldn’t have mattered a whit. Chopra went the whole hog — stunning body-hugging dresses, dextrous kicks and punches — but nothing worked.

Guns and Gulaabs

I was really looking forward to Raj and DK’s Guns and Gulaabs, because, really, how bad can anything with Rajmummar Rao be? But this throwback to the 90s with its cassette players and breathy pop songs and Sanjay Dutt-inspired mullet-sporting goons felt like a collection of scenes and sequences cobbled from so much we thought we had left behind, for good reason. Couldn’t spot a single reason in here to bring that era back, unless it was just, you know, let’s-do-the-90s-thing, with the bell bottoms and the half-sweaters and the songs.

The Freelancer

Mohit Raina led the series The Freelancer.

A good actor needs a good script. Mohit Raina, so good in Mumbai Diaries 1 and 2, couldn’t rise above the ‘The Freelancer’s fervid plot featuring terrorists, kidnappers, depressed wives, pretty sanatoriums, and dangerous hot-spots around the globe: you can take the exact same mix, and turn it into a pacy thriller, but this Neeraj Pandey outing, also starring Anupam Kher and Sushant Singh, was a misfire from the get-go.