A wannabe standup comedian with serious stage fright and who stammers when nervous suddenly finds an elixir to his problems—killing a human being. Following the accidental murder of his boss/mentor Gulati (Manoj Pahwa) at his hands at the backstage of an event, the nervous Hasmukh (Vir Das) takes the stage, just to discover that he now has the ability to perform a hilarious standup skit without any hesitation.
This starts a string of live stage performances for Hasmukh, arranged by his manager Jimmy (Ranvir Shorey)—his literal partner in crime. The artist-manager duo commits murder after murder just to get Hasmukh to the stage, and as success starts coming, so do suspicion and law.
Co-created and written by producer/director/screenwriter Nikkhil Advani and actor/standup comedian Vir Das, Hasmukh is an Indian mini-series that premiered on Netflix in mid-April and quickly became the talk of the virtual town. Nikhil Gonsalves directs the 10-episode series, each episode about 30-minutes long. It means the Season 1 can be binged-watched within five hours, which is not nearly long in the current situation, and this is not the only woe for Hasmukh.
Despite featuring a talented team of actors and producers, Hasmukh is a troubled production. Vir, even with his vast experience as a standup comedian, fails to embody the character. Hasmukh, an orphan, is supposedly a timid small-towner whose ambition of becoming a famous standup comedian never really takes off under a dominating boss and an oppressive uncle. He manages to murder both of them—the former unintentionally and the latter deliberately—but the audience cannot feel the intensity of a would-be-serial killer in his character. Vir is not convincing enough in his dual murderer-performer roles.
Seasoned actor Ranvir Shorey seems to have a similar problem. Having starred in multiple comedy movies under big banners as well as independent production houses, but is way under his prime in Hasmukh. As Jimmy, a greedy artist manager who quickly switches to managing Hasmukh as soon as he finds out about Gulati’s death, and then also participates in the murders Hasmukh commits, Ranvir struggles to find the rhythm throughout the series. There are moments when he shines in his character and outperforms Vir, but given his experience and reputation, overall, Ranvir’s Jimmy is sub-par.
Even with seasoned actors like Raza Murad and Ravi Kishan playing significant roles in the series, their presence does not spice up the screenplay. Maybe the average screenplay is why Hasmukh is an average production. A screenplay that is not able to establish the ferocity of a serial killer is definitely a major problem. The writers seem to be so split in giving Hasmukh multiple personas that he cannot embody.
And since the story of Hasmukh does not end with the first season (what a bummer), we will now have to wait for the second season to find what happens in the comedian-cum-serial killer’s life.
Who should watch it?
In the end, we also realize that we might be judging Hasmukh a bit too harshly. Over a month of continuously binging on highly rated movies and series has probably raised our standards and spoilt our tolerance. All biases aside, Hasmukh is definitely a watchable series and better than most movies we reviewed in the first quarter of 2020. Anyone who’s forced to stay indoors due to the lockdown and has Netflix can watch it.
Hasmukh
Rating: 3 stars
Actors: Vir Das, Ranvir Shorey, Ravi Kishan
Director: Nikhil Gonsalves
Run time: 5hr (approx.)
