Disney Plus Hotstar's 'Showtime Part Two' review: Emraan Hashmi and Rajeev Khandelwal steal the show in a juicy take on Bollywood

Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Rajeev Khandelwal, Mouni Roy, Shriya Saran, Vijay Raaz, Mahima Makwana

Director: Mihir Desai and Archit Kumar

Language: Hindi

They could have released all the episodes together but the intent may have been to craft a build up that feels tense and intense. A lot of chaos already happened in part one of Disney Hotstar’s Showtime. The restlessness looms large in the remaining episodes too that have dropped four months after we saw the first four. The final moment of the last episode has the exact juiciness we crave for on Instagram. The blind items, the clandestine rendezvous, or as Karan Johar says- Behind the scenes and beneath the sheets. Those very sheets are now set to be torn, the discomforting truths will be unveiled, and new conflicts will be birthed. Every mayhem that unfolded in the first four episodes was just a set-up, the tip of the iceberg. The Titanic has hit that iceberg and the cracks have begun to show. With the remaining episodes, all we have to see is if the ship sinks or sails. Showtime, this time, is all about witnessing who survives and who sinks.

Charisma and cockiness

Emraan Hashmi and Rajeev Khandelwal share the kind of love-hate relationship that could be a representation of how most of the dynamics in Bollywood function. Both pretend to rub each other’s back to meet their own ends. One is snooty and cocky and the other wears conceit like a sleeve. Khandelwal plays the exaggerated version of Aryan Khanna from Shah Rukh Khan’s Fan, and the name of his house is Jannat, which is one of Hashmi’s films as well. There are more Easter eggs here than one would have expected. Hashmi had a solid following till the time he was crooning to chartbuster melodies and flaunting his smooching style with ease. He was creating havoc both at the box-office and in the critics’ minds with titles like Murder, Murder 2, Jannat, Jannat 2. Raghu could be an epoch-making character for the man who dared to bid adieu to what bloomed him into a star. Khandelwal, on the other hand, has had one of the most gripping debuts in the last two decades with Raj Kumar Gupta’s Aamir (2008). In Showtime, he’s clearly shedding all his inhibitions. He’s hammy and cerebral, he’s insecure and inquisitive, and most crucially, the man is having a ball.

The women barely had any agency prior to the finale but they too grow a spine. Mouni Roy, who was the only bright spot in the doomed opus Brahmastra, pulls off a role that’s bruised and betrayed. Shriya Saran too comes into her own after being pretty much less than ornamental before. And Mahima Makwana is still coming to terms with the power she was bestowed with. Hers is the case of slingshot in a monkey’s hand. Come to think of it, an upright (and uptight) journalist who proudly (and little hammily) refuses a bribe and slams a juggernaut potboiler in her review is suddenly made the honcho of a massive movie studio. At first, she’s a headless chicken, till the time she realises this sh**t is going to be anything but a cakewalk.

The not-so-subtle digs

Writers Sumit Roy, Lara Chandni, Mithun Gangopadhyay make no bones about talking sly digs at the industry. ‘You can’t become a superstar unless you’ve endorsed pan masala,’ was the highlight of last season. This time, it’s about actors winning the National award. This campiness and juiciness is exactly the kind of stuff netizens crave for on social media. Of course, Showtime by Sumit Roy, Mihir Desai, and Archit Kumar is nowhere close to the remarkable effortlessness of Zoya Akhtar’s ageless Luck By Chance (2009), it’s still contagious since it exposes what YouTubers call the dark side of Bollywood. Madhur Bhandarkar has done that too, but this show never steers into the kind of hammy melodrama the filmmaker shows in his work.

But it’s curious to know what happens to these people once the curtains drop. Or to all those fictional people that have played real people against the backdrop of the Hindi film industry. The conflicts in Bollywood barely end, there’s a new roadblock after every few steps. _Showtime’_s a subject that can go on and on and on. And even when you think these unlikable and flawed people have achieved all that they wanted, you’re still thinking what future holds for them. Maybe some blind items on social media, a forgotten appearance on Karan Johar’s Koffee With Karan, or incessant trolling on X? I can already see few characters from the show wailing at a viral podcast about how they never got their due in Bollywood, and how nepotism ruined their careers.

Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)

All episodes of Showtime are now streaming on Disney Plus Hotstar

Working as an Entertainment journalist for over five years, covering stories, reporting, and interviewing various film personalities of the film industry see more