Taking place in a small, picturesque hill town in Uttarakhand, this comedy-drama series is written by Jasmeet Singh Bhatia and tells the story of two rich spoilt siblings given the task of restoring a hotel belonging to their family back to its former glory by their grandfather. In a bid to win the challenge and inherit their grandfather’s inheritance, Dev and Kalki are determined to do whatever it takes to hit the jackpot. But who will win the challenge in the end?
The series has 6 episodes, each with a runtime of around 35 minutes.
Life Hill Gayi Series Cast
Divyenndu, Kusha Kapila, Vinay Pathak, Kabir Bedi, Bhagyashree, Mukti Mohan, Aditi Govitrikar
Life Hill Gayi Director
Prem Mistry
Life Hill Gayi Review
Shows like these work on their emotional beats, wherein the characters, often flawed, overcome obstacles in their lives to understand how important those closest to them are. Life Hill Gayi is something similar – with Kalki and Dev, two spoilt kids, who are forced to work for the first time in their lives trying to get their grandfather’s hotel functional in lieu of a huge inheritance. In the end, they learn some things about their lives and become humble – the usual stuff for slice-of-life shows like these.
Hotstar’s newest series is a mix of life lessons, happy times and difficulties with Kusha Kapila’s Kalki and Divyenndu’s Dev fighting it out to get a huge inheritance of their grandfather. The story is nothing unexpected, the situations are a given and the series, with 6 very short episodes, ends on a cliffhanger for no reason so we don’t really get to have any closure when it comes to the characters’ situations or their story arcs.
There are glimmers of sweetness throughout the runtime, especially when it comes to the supporting characters, whose stories and interactions are full of warmth and innocence. Sometimes these people get into their own naughtiness, but it’s nothing horrible and you can’t help but smile at the silliness of it all. Each episode tackles a different difficulty in Dev and Kalki’s race which humbles them to different degrees. These situations are mildly funny and quite cliched, but things feel fresh to a certain degree when you see the biggest of cliches with the backdrop of the beautiful Uttarakhand mountains.
Life Hill Gayi, as I mentioned previously, is supposed to be rooted in the relationships that Kalki and Dev foster in their new abode. The series goes through each of their struggles as they make new connections and nurse old ones back to health and, for most of the runtime, it’s a fine watch. You expect their struggles to bear fruit in the last episode wherein there is some conclusion to the insanity shown at first. However, that’s where it falters the most – it doesn’t make that emotional or memorable landing that steals our hearts in any way. Surprisingly enough, the last episode is its most confusing and I couldn’t help but be left bewildered by the half-baked reconciliation between Kalki, Dev and their father.
Vinay Pathak’s character, for most of the runtime, feels left out of the loop and a forgotten addition who sometimes chimes in to remind us of arbitrary things. Although he has some funny moments, for most of the time he is an alcoholic with no care for his children. In the last episode, we see him opening up a bit more but then the episode ends up giving the three an easy and convenient reconciliation bankrolled by a Patek Philippe watch. We don’t see them overcoming their past or whatever shenanigans that they have gone through over the course of the runtime and the series makes it feel like throwing money at your problems makes them go away, which leaves a very bitter taste in the mouth. Of course, then it leaves everything on a cliffhanger for some reason making things mysterious for the sake of it.
Either way, I found Hima and Dev’s relationship to be sweet and relatable and the friendship simply makes it better. Unfortunately, that ends up being left half-baked as well. Divyenndu and Kusha Kapila, as siblings, are quite entertaining and they have good chemistry that they use to work off each other. Their entertaining quips, rivalry, and adoration for one another are entirely wholesome. Mukti Mohan as Hima is sweet as well and brings logic into the otherwise chaos of their small village. Mohan and Divyenndu feel organic together and their friends-to-lovers relationship is quite cute.
Final Thoughts
In the end, the series has its sweet and funny moments peppered in, most of which are mentioned in the trailer, surprisingly. There’s an air of sweetness in the air of this quaint Uttarakhand town that is hard to dismiss but the way the story is structured and presented leaves a lot to be desired. The end is its biggest weakness and leaves us feeling thoroughly dissatisfied. All in all, the bursts of intrigue aren’t enough to leave a thorough impression although the actors try their best to make up for the gaps in the story.
Also Read: