Kaun Banegi Shikharwati Episode 1 Review: In this royal family narrative, the humour & drama are both lukewarm

Directed by Gauravv K Chawla & Ananya Banerjee, Kaun Banegi Shikharwati features Naseeruddin Shah, Lara Dutta Bhupathi, Soha Ali Khan, Kritika Kamra, Anya Singh, Raghubir Yadav, & Cyrus Sahukar. The web series is currently available for streaming on the Zee5 OTT platform. Check the full Kaun Banegi Shikharwati episode 1 review below.

Kaun Banegi Shikharwati Episode 1

Story

An estranged family meeting after years apart: a plot ripe for great comedy and drama. Unfortunately, neither of these emotions is evoked in the first episode of Kaun Banegi Shikharwati. After a government notification about an income tax probe threatening to take away the family palace, an aged monarch and his secretary mislead his four estranged daughters into visiting the royal fort in Rajasthan. The monarch, at the suggestion of his secretary, conducts a royal contest, a series of games, to determine the future successor to the Rs. 200 crores Shikarwati Palace.

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Performances

An intriguing ensemble that includes Naseeruddin Shah, Lara Dutta Bhupathi, Soha Ali Khan, Kritika Kamra, Anya Singh, and the endearing Raghubir Yadav, among others, piques one's interest in how this family drama will unfold over the course of ten episodes.

However, the first in the line fails to captivate and hold your attention for long, while engrossing you at times. Writer Ananya Banerjee makes it a point to emphasize that this royal family is made up of four princesses who are all very distinct from one another

So much so that their father, Raja Mrityunjay Singh Shikharwat (Naseeruddin Shah), describes one as confident, the other as warm, and so on, just as an orange varies from an apple, despite the fact that both are fruits.

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Devyani (Lara), Gayatri (Soha), Kamini (Kritika), and Uma (Anya) are all introduced in the first few minutes of the show, establishing their distinct characteristics. It would have been a delight if the episode had followed the simple rule of 'Show, don't tell,' and the characters' distinct personalities were revealed in their interactions with one another and in their moments of solitude, rather than labeling them 'A' 'B' 'C' 'D' like four different options from the quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati. 

Conclusion 

The first episode may make you ponder about the royal family's shared history, which has caused them to be alienated and chilly to one another. The answer will be revealed in the remaining episodes.