Sunflower Review: A twisted comedy crime drama with lost potential

3/5

Cast: Sunil Grover, Ranvir Shorey, Girish Kulkarni, Shonali Nagrani, Mukul Chaddha, Ashish Vidhyarthi.

Director: Vikas Bahl

What is it about

Murder. That's what the series begins with. In the first scene itself, the viewers become privy to both the murder and murderer of Mr Raj Kapoor, at the seemingly unremarkable Sunflower society. The police scramble to eliminate suspects, narrowing down to two possible ones, all the while as other plot lines run parallel.

Sunil Grover was last seen as a cold and calculating right-hand man of a politician in Tandav. From Tandav to Sunflower, Grover plays a polar opposite character; a naive and jovial fellow who seems to have gotten stuck into something far sinister. He seems to have OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), which has been portrayed in a discernible manner and some people might find his abject loneliness, a lack of social circle and pinning after a girl from afar quite relatable.

Ranvir Shorey and Girish Kulkarni play the role of the cops with the former essaying a no-nonsense cop and the latter playing a camera obsessed womaniser sidekick.

What’s hot

The plot brims with potential. Grover’s innocent-to-a-fault character might just seem to be too much for the viewers at times, but there is something comical yet different to see how he sees the world around him, even when the odds are stacked against him.

There was an attempt made at character study through different people in the series, peeling off quite a few layers, which seemed to work in the favour of a small minority.

The consistent score of the series complements the scenes very nicely. With its sarcastic overtones on the society around us, the show throws light on the patriarchal mindset of the seemingly educated people and the prejudices they harbour against the queer community, divorced people, people of other religion etc. and anyone who they don’t seem to fit in their mould of the ‘perfect traditional Indian family’.

What’s not

Sunflower tries to be too funny, playing at stereotypical tropes at times and is inundated with unnecessary dialogues. Even though it’s 2021, we are somehow still making unnecessary jokes at the expense of fat people, which didn’t sit right with me. The converging plotlines lose their relevance as each of them try to gain a foothold and ultimately make a hodgepodge.

Verdict:

Sunflower is a very lukewarm series with a lot of potential which gets lost in the multiple storylines, it fails to make a solid impression. Viewers will find their attention wavering with the lack of a coherent pacing. Even though it makes a scathing commentary at society’s insistence to be modern but going five steps backwards through the mentality of the society’s board, it is frustrating without a satisfying end.