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Uneasy Lies the Head That Wears the Crown: Chaos Reigns in Kull — The Legacy of the Raisingghs

Dysfunction, deceit, and dynastic decay fuel Kull: The Legacy of the Raisingghs — a chaotic whodunit that aims high but hits mostly off-centre. Manik Sharma reviews.

Manik+Sharma

May 05, 2025

Poster detail for Kull: The Legacy of the Raisingghs. JioHotstar

“YE MAHAL KUREDOGE, TOH SIRF DIMAK MILEGI,” an investigating officer proclaims with disdain after getting his hands on some clinching evidence, midway through JioHotstar’s Kull: The Legacy of the Raisingghs.

Dysfunctional families are possibly among the most flexible, genre-bending tropes in the history of storytelling. They make for fascinating explorations of the human condition, because they are a choice humans never get to make: You don’t get to choose your family, you simply get to choose how you deal with them. The commandment — thus laid out in all its blunt, evocative imagery — holds water. But mixed in, is some blood. There is not a home in the world that doesn’t have dents or stains on the insides of its manicured walls. But while Kull is predictable to that extent, it has this messy, uncouth way of going about things that also makes it strangely intriguing.

Patriarch Chandra Pratap Raisinggh has lost his marbles. He is cash-strapped, memory-strapped, and will soon be life-strapped. The so-called mahal that is the last remnant of his erstwhile legacy is up for auction. Children, relatives, siblings hover with their tongues hanging out in anticipation of their keep. There is a gay heir, a drug-addled son, a scheming daughter-in-law, and a family history knottier than the route you took to work today. Of the characters on display, the criminally underrated Amol Parashar as Abhimanyu is the highlight as an acidic, insufferable prince-in-waiting. There is also the dependable Nimrat Kaur as Indrani, the eldest of three siblings, and Ridhi Dogra as Kavya, a live action version of calm amidst all the commotion.

For the first few episodes of this show which follows a royal family in decline, the murder — the whodunit-ness of it — feels like the lesser of the mysteries. The setting might be Christie-esque; however, the people peeking behind the curtains aren’t necessarily looking for the killer, but rather, for the janitor who sweeps the hate and friction off the palace’s floors. Relationships are twisted: Abhimanyu calls his elder sister Maa. Who is in turn is married to a man who is secretly closeted yet obviously out in the open. It’s puzzling, inconsistent, almost rogue in terms of basics. Far too many secrets parade in the corridors, with several others ready to spill out. The lack of restraint makes for a strangely fascinating ride.

Directed by Sahir Raza, this eight-episode series wants to go for more than just mystery. The palace is locked down, family members asked to stay put, but the hint of suspicion rests on a handful of heads. Because this is a royal family, there is money, inheritance, political careers and of course whatever is left of their reputations to save. In this fragile inner constitution arrives the rowdy, arrogant hammer of a detective, un-ironically named Bhagwan (Ankit Siwach). It’s like the purgatorial rinse-and-spin cycle, a whitewash commissioned from the recesses of hell. This particular police officer, almost bizarrely, respects neither authority nor social clout. It’s disarming, in a sense, but also bemusing. Which is another of the many oddly fascinating things about this show.

Kull is far too grim for its own good at times. Toxic families make for fun viewing, but here the toxicity is dialled up to the point where it dehumanises the people. Insults, abuse and a startling lack of dignity would make for entertaining fare, but the show forgets to let go of its own vicious gaze. No character ever seems contemplative, quiet or even hesitant. It’s like watching a bunch of trigger-happy incels clamouring to tear each other’s faces apart. While the shrillness of it makes for a spectacle, it doesn’t so much as get under your skin as much as it gets on your nerves. Even the wildest of dysfunctional families — and this one certainly fits the norm — have to, at some point, summon an inner teleprompter to read something that is not a vile attack. The writing, naturally, lets down a group of decent actors by reducing them to abusive blobs who seem to be members of a species devoid of an inner complexity.

Kull is obviously not the high point of the Indian streaming calendar. It’ll pass muster as an also-ran, but it can’t hold a candle to the depths of something more self-conscious, precise and well-thought. Beyond the patchy execution, the tacky cavalry of production and design, there is this sense that this is a show desperately swinging for the sharp fringes of shock than the more collected, and calm centre of awe. It trades, spills and launches family secrets — some of them interesting, others not so much — but forgets to deepen its characters with scraps that fall in their laps. To a bunch of hyenas, a dead tiger is nothing but a piece of meat. But in our stories, the hyenas ought to do more than just howl obscenities, scavenge what they can get without the obligation of ever telling us who they really are. Or else it’s nothing more than an ambush.

Uneasy Lies the Head That Wears the Crown: Chaos Reigns in Kull — The Legacy of the Raisingghs

Manik+Sharma

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