The Great Indian Kapil Show could have been more bolder on Netflix.

By Anil Merani: Kapil Sharma’s fans have been eagerly waiting for the move of his famous show, now titled The Great Indian Kapil Show, to Netflix. The first episode of the new season, featuring superstar Ranbir Kapoor, his mother Neetu Singh, and sister Riddhima Kapoor Sahani, was released last night. It was a typical Kapil show, full of jokes and witty remarks.

This season also saw the return of Sunil Grover, playing the character of Dafli, who sells products at the duty-free counter at the airport, which is the new show setting. Sunil had quit the show after an in-flight altercation with a drunk Kapil in March 2017. After a brief pow-wow with Kapil, Sunil’s character started to romance Ranbir, with his mother also joining in. The act of them entering a curtained area and Ranbir coming out with kiss marks on his face had the audience in splits.

Kapil’s conversation with the trio was fun, with amusing anecdotes about Rishi Kapoor adding to the laughter. Ranbir kept entertainingly referring to Rishi’s love for liquor, calling it nimbu pani. He also talked about his childhood pranks with his sister and how they both used to jump in dirty ponds. The Q&A session made Ranbir appear to be a calm and detached man, which is quite different from his real-life persona.

Many viewers expect bold and in-your-face talk when they log on to international streaming platforms. Here, the creative team repeatedly referred to Ranbir’s last super hit, Animal. Kapil even took a swipe at the lovemaking sequence on the plane. Ranbir could have also spoken about his other hit films, but a hot topic always gets more traction. And here they were, openly promoting a film that is also available on Netflix.

The Animal connect was further reinforced with the Krushna Abhishek segment. Kiku came a second time as Sunny Deol, the elder brother to Abrar, played by Krushna. The gag with Kiku acting as an interpreter for Abrar was fun.

The icing on the cake was Kapil’s interaction with his wife, Ginni Chatrath. She beat Kapil hands down in repartee. Kapil’s mother was also present during the show.

Kapil’s similar digs at Archana Puran Singh have now become hollow. Maybe they can bring back Navjot Singh, who used to impress the audience with new words every other week.

One glaring absence was Sumona Chakraborty from Kapil’s team. No one knows why she was omitted. Can we assume that she was not that important to be featured on Netflix?

Rather than dropping the entire season in one go, the upcoming weekly episodes will feature Diljit Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra promoting ‘Chamkila,’ Indian cricketers Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer, and even Aamir Khan.

In conclusion, we could see a script where Ranbir compares Kapil to Amitabh Bachchan and other big Bollywood stars. The whole world knows that Kapil is a top-notch anchor, but an average actor so far.