Nukkad 2.0

Nukkad 2.0: My take on Sunil Grover’s ‘Sunflower’

In 86, Nukkad, a socio-economic drama had glued the entire generation to TV (thanks to DD), where the plot was set in a local street corner (nukkad) and every character in the series was relatable which made the series a great hit. Now coming to Sunflower, here the plot has become verticle, I mean from a nukkad it has moved to a high rise building society in Mumbai with a slight variation that a murder is committed in this sunflower society and the entire society undergoes scrutiny by cops. (Presence of ‘khopadi’ here made me conclude that this is Nukkad 2.0)

I am a bit confused as to ‘Should this be classified as a Murder mystery or a social satire or a comedy or thriller or psychodrama? Or it is a concoction of all these!! ‘ This is precisely the main drawback of the overstretched web series. Else it boasts of an exemplary star cast with the likes of Ranvir Shorey, Girish Kulkarni, Sunil Grover, and Ashish Vidyarthi, who have given their best shot yet could not prevent it from becoming an overstretched drag. The series has so many characters which leads to many subplots as the director attempts to develop these characters in the process he misses the focus as to what he wants to tell us.

The series begins with a murder in a building with an ‘obvious’ murderer who is revealed to the audience but cops are not able to solve the case for the next 8 episodes. Sunil Grover plays a weird character who is part Mr. Bean, part Naive, part comic, part paranoid for ‘orderliness’, he plays his part beautifully however at times the Gutthi in him comes up, next best performer is Atul Kulkarni who plays a cop and he is too good in his role. The needle of suspicion also points towards Sunil Grover because of his weird behavior and the dark comedy becomes darker.

Then the season 1 abruptly ends virtually converting this 8 episode series into a trailer for season 2. Secondly, I failed to decipher why the series is named ‘Sunflower’, is it a metaphor for someone looking at positivity always, or is it a desire to seek light and truth? अपुन के समझ के बाहर है.

Sunil Grover is on a roll post-Tandav, he is getting main leads in web series which is a testimony of his talent pool. You can watch the series for just for him and Inimitable Atul Kulkarni he make acting looks very easy. Sleek editing, crisp writing and tighter direction would have made this sunflower blossom.

Remember sunflower oil is rich in Omega and is good for heart, hence bit of overstretch can be tolerated 😜. It is available on Zee5 platform and is produced and directed by Vikas Bahl ( yes the Queenwala Bahl )