After the disastrous end of Season-1 of The Kapil Sharma Show, everyone kind of concluded that it was end of the road for Kapil Sharma and the show around him. The Kapil Sharma Show was the sequel to the much acclaimed Comedy Nights with Kapil and its initial 100 plus episodes were the prime time shows for Sony which broadcasted them. Sony had to drop the show after Kapil Sharma’s personal problems and news about him started attracting more (negative) publicity than the man himself and the show.
Salman Khan in his screen life has often come to the rescue of the nation and its people in trouble. This time he did it in real life. The Kapil Sharma Show – Season 2 was back and it had a great run to start with. Interestingly, the reason for the runaway success of Season 2 was the willingness of Kapil Sharma to share stage with his other costars. In the first 30 shows or so of Season 2, Kapil was like one of the core comedians and his screen presence was always below 15%. Kiku Sharda as Bachcha Yadav, Sumona Chakravarti as Bhoori, Chandan Prabhakar as Chandu, Krushna Abhishek as Sapna and Bharti Singh as Titli Yadav were all powerful characters, scripted well and executed to perfection. Navjot Singh Sidhu as permanent guest carried his role with his trademark elan. One looked forward to watching Kapil make it happen all over again, more as a binding piece rather than the central character. And magic happened.
After Navjot Singh Sidhu’s exit due to his political comments, the onus to provide pull factor to the show shifted entirely to Kapil Sharma and that is where the show started losing its mojo. Archana Puran Singh, though good, is no Siddhu and Kapil kind of tried to cover for the loss of Siddhu. Slowly screen time started shifting to Kapil more and more, even with show specific guests. Kapil’s screen presence percentage started growing and it currently stands above 30% in all episodes. The show has once again become everything about Kapil. Kapil is talented, but to carry two shows every week on his own strength is too tough a challenge for him too. Expressions, comments, jokes and delivery-all became repetitive, and the show has gradually shifted from ‘must watch’ to ‘what else is there to watch’.
With the punch gone and the episodes missing other vibrant characters, the show started taking a down-slide. So far, it is a free fall. If this fall is not arrested, it is tough to imagine what this show would turn out to be in the next 10 episodes. Clearly, The Kapil Sharma Show Season 2 is dying and it is Kapil Sharma himself who is taking it towards the funeral pyre.
It is a great show. I wish someone talks sense and ratios of screen time go back to the original format of Season 2. This would bring novelty and fun back. Till then, there are better choices on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
