Salt City on SonyLIV is directed by Rishabh Anupam Sahay and written by Rishabh, Pranjal Saxena and Shashank. The show stars Piyush Mishra as Harish Bajpai, Navni Parihar as Triveni Bajpai, Divyendu Sharma as Saurabh Bajpai, Monica Chaudhary as Ela Bajpai, Pranay Pachauri as Nikhil Bajpai, Gauahar Khan as Gunjan, Manish Anand as Aman Bajpai, Eisha Chopra as Esha and Jitin Gulati as Sukesh. The show has 7 episodes overall.
The IMDb synopsis reads, “Salt City delves into the complexities of relationships within the Bajpai family. The show explores their journey of exploring the past, dealing with a bitter present, and unfolding a promising future.”
SonyLIV’s Salt City Review Contains No Spoilers
Harish Bajpai, the patriarch of the Bajpai family, moved to Mumbai at least 25-30 years ago. However, he doesn’t love the city. He often complains about the city’s humidity, the salt being excessive in the water, and the air that ruins everything good. Harish and his wife Triveni have 3 sons – Aman, Nikhil and Saurabh and a daughter named Esha. His niece Ela stays with him.
Harish has a big family, but the bond isn’t strong. His elder son Aman and wife Gunjan stay separately. Nikhil has moved out to do something big in his life. Harish stays with Triveni, Saurabh and Ela in the house. His daughter Esha is married to a rich man named Sukesh. There are lots of differences or saltiness between the family member. However, things go haywire when they all come together for Ela’s wedding.
Salt City is made to show what goes on in a normal but broken and migrated family in the city of Mumbai. It depicts some people’s passion for making it big in the city and living a lavish life. However, not everyone succeeds the way they want. The show also shows how some people are physically living here, but mentally, they’re still at the place where they originally lived. Harish Bajpai is one of them.
The issues in the Bajpai family are many. However, the first four episodes are very slow and require too much patience for the story to unfold. It’s a show where the edit button would’ve helped a lot. Due to the slow pace, the problems in the family seemed unimportant initially. So many subplots also leave you confused about where the story is going.
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From the 5th episode, the web show takes an intense turn. It’s the same twist that helps in concluding the family drama dramatically. Salt City could’ve been a better web series if the screenplay didn’t lag in the first four episodes. One wouldn’t want to keep watching it become better from the fifth episode.
Piyush Mishra’s character Harish Bajpai came across as a whiny person instead of someone who’s missing his hometown. I kept thinking, if he has SO much hate for the city, why can’t he just leave? What’s the point of blaming the city for everything you failed to do?
Despite being the eldest family member, he hardly took any responsibility. Considering how distracted he is for some reason, what can one expect from such a person? He’s a character for whom one cannot easily develop any sympathy. The rest of the characters are equally complicated. But at least they know how to take responsibility or don’t blame the city for their failure in careers or life.
The SonyLIV show also highlighted several relevant issues. It shows how carefree and unbothered a part of today’s youth is; there’s an unhappy marriage despite the guy being ‘rich and well-settled’, how the people close to us hurt the most at times and how the family always stands by a person’s side in the end.
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Coming to performances, actors Piyush Mishra, Manish Anand, Divyendu Sharma, Gauahar Khan, and Monica Chaudhary give stand-out performances. Even though Mishra’s character irked me, I still appreciate how well he acted on screen. The rest of the cast also plays their part well.
Salt City Review: Final Thoughts
Overall, SonyLIV’s Salt City is a bland, broken family drama that fails to engross one. The slow pace takes away the emotional connection one could’ve had with the characters. The plot is very scattered at the beginning, which takes a lot of time to make sense. There are many talks about how Mumbai affects people and things. But none of it is quite impactful.
Watch the show on Sony LIV.
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I agree that all the actors played their roles very well however ,I appreciate Navni ,Nivedita also pretty well at the same time Pranay and Eisha both are comparatively new actors but completely did the justice with their roles, I am surprised with their skills as they never over or underacted.