There is nothing really wrong with this middle-class family serial, except that it tries to echo Gullak in every detail—even the family members are exactly the same count—and falls short abysmally.
Unlike Dupahiya, which did a Panchayat better than Panchayat.
Bakaiti brings some edifying talent to the table, but forgets to serve them any appetising food to chew on. The series ends up being more a smile than a grin, more an echo than a ping. The family is quickly introduced, and we get the picture much too soon.
That the two dependable actors Rajesh Tailang and Sheeba Chadha play the parents takes care of 75 per cent of the serial’s stress.
…Or so it would like to believe. Distracting, the Tailang and Sheeba mix isn’t quite the formula to fix the numerous loopholes in the plot, its dangling edges, for one. The writing is lazy, and the actors seem to have been briefed to speak loudly and aggressively to cover up for the lack of true inspiration.
Lamentably, there is no dramatic tension in the storytelling. Even when a character dies, the script is busy foraging for laughter. Jokes about mock-mourning are as old as Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, and nobody in Bakaiti seems to be Kundan Shah. Certainly not some of the supporting actors who behave like facsimiles of working-class scroungers rather than the real thing.
I especially found the bantering between the Kataria siblings annoying and off-putting, probably because the boy overacts every time he opens his mouth. They feel like two auto-mated shiv lings rather than real siblings.
Still, it is not all a washout. There are times when the characters rise above the mundane material at their disposal. There is this moment when Sheeba Chadha’s Sushma Kataria looks accusingly at her sister-in-law and wonders if the saree that the househelp is seen wearing is the one Sushma gifted her sister-in-law for Diwali.
Another stray moment that teased a chuckle out of me was when the grandfather, looking at reels on his phone all day long, wonders why he gave his daughter’s hand to a bhikhari.
The arrival of a tenant, the crux of the family drama, signals the downslide of even the smattering of interest that one felt for the characters. Predictably, the tenant is young and an ideal match for the daughter of the Kataria family.
Time for some yawn sambandh.
In spite of the snappy length of each episode (20 minutes or less), Bakaiti is a yawn fest. But I still want Season 2 to happen: the characters have the potential to go from groan to grow. But for that, the team has to loosen up and explore the middle class beyond the tawdry tropes.
