The six-episode series co-produced by Srijit Mukherji and Aniruddha Guha is released on JioCinema.
After inspiring several unauthorised knock-offs, Sherlock Holmes is officially coming to India. Shekar Home, a Bengali incarnation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s consulting detective, is outside the canon in its approach and treatment.
From the silly pun in the title to Shekar Home’s antics, the JioCinema series is light-hearted and funny. Produced by Aniruddha Guha and Srijit Mukherji, Shekar Home is based on Conan Doyle’s stories available in the public domain. Mukherjee is directing four of the six episodes written by Guha and Niharika Puri.
The overall tone is very close to the Benedict Cumberbatch-led Sherlock BBC series (produced by Shekar Home BBC Studios India). Except for plotting Holmes in a contemporary setting, Sherlock took massive liberties with the source material. Shekhar Holmes also plays with Doyle’s creations, setting up familiar and unique arcs for Shekhar (Kay Kay Menon) and Watsonian Jayavrat (Ranvir Shorey).
Sherlock’s brother Mycroft Mrinmai (Kaushik Sen), her maid Mrs Hudson Mrs Henry (Sheranaaz Patel) and the bumbling police officer Lestrade Laha (Ruthranil Ghosh). Irene Adler is the only woman to penetrate Holmes’s dogmatic heart, Irrapadi (Rasika Dugal).
The Hindi-language show took place between 1991 and 1993 in the fictional town of Lonepur. Shekhar brings a large collection of batik kurtas and immense talent here. Along with doctor Jayavrat, the rapbo-strumming Shekhar solves a series of crimes, from a strange ad for a groom to supernatural murders.
The show’s Moriarty, or M, is already in the works. Until their paths cross in the final two episodes, directed by Rohan Sippy, M.
The Bengali flavour is prominent without being overwhelming. Rabindranath Tagore appears in a crucial episode when Sherlock Holmes solves cases in the nineteenth century. There is a cheeky reference to Sushmita Sen who is yet to be crowned Miss Universe. In his ancient faith in footwork and brainwork, Shekhar is an inheritor of Bengali detective fiction traditions, paying homage to Doyle’s iconic work.
The show feels like a relaxing picnic, with no intention of getting back to work. The attitude of Shekhar Home is best represented through the high-strung protagonist’s booming laughter whenever there is a crucial turn. The destruction of the world – or even the possibility of the destruction of Kolkata – cannot dim the eternal sparkle in Shekhar’s eyes.
The brilliant cast, the effortless chemistry between Shekhar and Jayavrat and the humour of Vaibhav Vishal’s dialogues make for a completely forgettable sequence of events leading up to Shekhar’s confrontation with M. Also, there’s a big twist in the opposite direction of the theory. Back to the usual Sherlock Holmes route, good flying.
The frivolity loosens up a bit in exactly one episode. Even more important than this particular case is the fight between Shekhar and Irabati. Among the many deviations from the source material, the humanisation of a famously harsh betrayer of women is most welcome.
Kay Kay Menon brings Shekhar to life brilliantly, with the requisite jolts and his own contributions. Inappropriate banter, awkwardness in social situations, kinetic energy, but enough joy and warmth. Rather than insulting the less talented, Menon’s detective is brilliant without being overbearing, top of the talent class rather than an insufferable genius.
Irabati asks Shekhar if you already know or is it a guess. It’s hard to guess, Shekhar nervously replies. But there’s nothing accidental in Menon’s intensity.
The rest of the cast also shines, with Ranvir Shorey as Shekhar, Rasika Dugal coolly slinky, Shernaz Patel in fine form as a landlady, Kaushik Sen appropriately gruff and Kaushik Sen appropriately inept.
