Bajao Review (Episodes 1-3): The JioCinema series, directed by Shiva Varma and Saptaraj Chakraborty, marks the acting debut of rapper Raftaar. It also stars Tanuj Virwani, Sahil Vaid, Sahil Khattar, and Mahira Sharma in lead roles. The show consists of eight episodes with a runtime of forty minutes each, out of which three have been released on August 25, 2023.
The series has been written by Nikhil Sachan. Also, Adinath Kothare, Monalisa and Rajesh Sharma are seen in supporting roles. The special effects on the show have been done by Achal Panchal, with cinematography by Arindam Debnath. Bajao is presented by Jio Studios and produced by Jyoti Deshpande, Pragya Singh and Vijendra Sahaani.
Bajao Review (Episodes 1-3)
The Punjabi music industry is a great topic to delve into for a web series as it could cover several aspects related to it. From gun violence, death threats and drugs to insane fandom, there is so much that does and doesn’t hit the news cycle when it comes to the industry, but none of this gets a deserving treatment in the new series. Instead, in the garb of a comedy, the show makes little effort to present an interesting story around the business of Punjabi rappers.
The show mainly revolves around three friends, Ved (Tanuj Virwanii), Dhaari (Sahil Khattar) and Cookie (Sahil Vaid), who are fed up with their professional lives being in a mess. While Dhaari works as a sales manager for a credit card company, Ved and Cookie are talent managers working with a popular label Meet Records. It is Ved’s dream to become a director and shoot music videos for famous artists, but he is far from seeing that happen in reality, given how the industry works and is in need of massive capital to get the role.
Most of the story takes place in flashback as the present day showcases Ved, Dhaari, and Cookie being hunted down by Dharam Singh’s (Rajesh Sharma) men after his son, Babbar (Raftaar), who was with them, goes missing. The story takes inspiration from Hangover as it shows the trio tracing back their steps to find answers to the whereabouts of the missing rapper whose comeback music video was to be shot by them.
Over the first three episodes, the series portrays the leading characters, cursing, boozing and having violent outbursts. As for the female characters, while Monalia’s Tanvi appears for a dance number, Mahira Sharma’s Sonal is portrayed as a demanding girlfriend, who constantly pesters Ved to get settled in life so he can become an eligible suitor for her to introduce to her father. These characteristics showcase how lazy the writing is. Touted to be a musical comedy, the series’ humour doesn’t pan out well either because of how dated the jokes feel. There is also a disgusting sequence involving Shrashti Maheshwari’s influencer Hansika who makes a tone deaf colourist remark.
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While the first two episodes showcase the trio of Ved, Dhaari and Cookie’s misadventures, Rafataar’s character Babbar is introduced late in the story. His character is shown to be at a low point after facing online abuse and having a fallout with a previous collaborator OG (Adinath Kothare). The story of their beef is shown in an animated form, and it’s probably this theme of the show that is at least mildly interesting compared to the rest, where it switches modes from being TVF’s Pitchers style startup culture drama and a ‘desi’ version of Hangover.
Out of all the performances, if there’s one actor that surprises the most, it’s Adinath Kothare given how he captures the whole rapper’s body language as well as the dialect extremely well and is nearly unrecognisable to people who have seen him in Marathi cinema. Sahil Vaid seems to have stepped straight out of the Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania franchise as he once again plays the goofball in the gang. In terms of Sahil Khattar’s Dhaari, the character is written so poorly, especially the whole boss-bashing sequence seems beyond unnecessary and unfunny, if it was event meant to bring any laughter.
Among the first three episodes, the show never forms a stronghold in any department and hence it’s not nearly as engaging to make you want to continue further. After the recent release of the AP Dhillon documentary (AP Dhillon: First Of A Kind), it feels even worse to watch a show that could have fictionalised the Punjabi rap scene and made it into something interesting, even if it wanted to tell Raftaar’s story rather than trying to make it into a comedy series.
Bajao Review (Episodes 1-3) Final Thoughts
The musical comedy series fails to deliver in most departments. While the script seriously lacks originality, there is little that can save this show from being a tiresome affair. The performances don’t have much to do, given how the characters have been written. Sometimes it’s also important for makers to have an understanding about how far a piece of content can stretch. The same story, possibly when it into a one hour and thirty minutes film, would still make for a mediocre watch than being stretched over unsatisfactory eight episodes.
The first three episodes of Bajao are streaming on JioCinema.
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Amazing series superb cast and story
Must watch