There are several comedy dramas that have surfaced on the OTT platforms and stayed true to the genre. Panchayat, Gullak, Mismatched, Hostel Daze, Choona, Triplings, and TVF Pitchers. All of them have different premises, yet somehow the humor in them is organic and stays rooted to the setting. The same could not be said about Life Hill Gayi. As the pun in the title suggests, the show is about an ultra-rich family from Uttarakhand who are given the task of refurbishing an old, dilapidated hotel. Directed by Prem Mistry, Life Hill Gayi is a Hotstar special that releases on August 9, 2024.
The six-part series, with each episode lasting thirty-three to thirty eight minutes, is all about an ultra-rich family that consists of an old man, his son, and his grandchildren. Fully aware of the fact that his son is a nincompoop, the old man assigned the task of getting his run-down hotel up and running within six months’ time and making it one of the most popular ones in the town of Panchmouli to his grandchildren. The whole idea was to reinstate the ‘Good Morning WoodVilla’ hotel into its former glory. The grandfather, whose name is Prithvi, offers medals to his grandchildren on the completion of any task that adds to the glory of the hotel. The grandchild with medals will win the proprietorship of the hotel, along with other wealth that belongs to the grandfather. Kalki and Dev are the grandchildren, who’ve lived a posh life in the city, while their father, Himalaya, was a useless parental figure meandering around hoping to get some respect from his father or children. As the renovation nears completion, the siblings are presented with many obstacles, and how they overcome them forms the plot of the show.
The premise of the show is the scenic hotel of Uttarakhand and grounding the rich spoilt brats from the city. The whole idea is to make them work on the hotel from scratch and make sure everything functions smoothly. The worst aspect of the show is the screenplay, which is incomplete and erratic. The makers of the show, Aarushi Nishank and Prem Mistry, do not paint a definite picture of the lead characters. There is no mention of what Dev does for a living. As the siblings are supposed to renovate the hotel, there is also no mention of how they are funding this project. Kalki’s profession is mentioned in passing, but beyond that, there is hardly any mention of the life she led before she was forced to move to Panchmouli. Why the siblings were in need of money had to be the crux of the plot, but that part of their story was left blank. These are some of the crater-sized plot holes that the writer/director did not fill in or care enough to expand on when it comes to helping the audience understand what was fueling their need for money. The subplots in the screenplay basically jump from one to another with an absence of continuity which eventually harms the viewing experience. There is a serial killer angle that started and ended abruptly, and the makers shamelessly ripped off a Modern Family gag about Phil forgetting to fix the step of the staircase in their home. Another subplot about the hotel being haunted is wasted completely. A subplot around an Uttarakhand-style wedding is added only to lecture people on local traditions, which looks horrendously stupid, lazily written, and shoddily executed.
Dev’s ex-girlfriend angle did not make sense as it did not generate any tension like it was supposed to. The saddest part of the show is the chemistry between the siblings which is nonexistent. There is not much depth or soul added to the relationship they share, and why do they hate each other. The writers especially have left all of these subplots open to the audience’s interpretation, which is sad and quite frankly negligent. Just because there are no stories from the hilly state of India does not give them the right to produce and deliver half-baked content in the name of entertainment. The female characters exist just for the sake of it, with no avenues given to them to explore their empowerment. These highly independent characters from the countryside of our nation deserved better storytelling than this. This indicates that female-driven production too cannot deliver a good woman-centric story.
The dubbing is just plain bad, and so is the direction, because there is a connection between storylines in each episode. The jump from one plot to another is annoying, and it will make you feel like dropping the show halfway through. The ending of the show is the weakest link, as there is no proper conclusion given to any of the narratives. The loose ends were conveniently tied up, in a way that did not make sense at all. The humor is just flat from the start till the end. There is no specific genre the makers are aiming for. The comedy in the show goes from lol jokes to satirical dialogue. Most of the jokes do not land, and it is tragic, keeping in mind the premise is supposed to be funny, as are the antics of the siblings that follow.
The infuriating aspect of the show is the dialogue and the language. I wish the makers of the show would have done some research on understanding how the locals of Uttarakhand speak Hindi and the accent they use. The typical “hum” and “aap” are just repetitions of what we see in shows that come from the Hindi belt. There is no effort added to make the show seem rooted in the culture and dialects of the state. We need better stories from Uttarakhand and the other hilly states of our country. The last one that was genuinely engaging was Raveena Tandon’s Aranyak, which was set in the state of Himachal Pradesh.
The performances are a major letdown. The makers managed to rope in good actors but could not get a solid performance out of them. Divyendu Sharma is a phenomenal actor, and to make him do a mediocre role that had no depth or emotion to work with is a tragedy. His comic timing is brilliant, yet the makers did not utilize it to its full potential. Kusha Kapila is a mediocre actress, and it does not make sense why production teams cast an influencer, not a thoroughly trained actor. The role of Kalki could have been given to any half decent actor, but it looks like the makers are relying a lot on the social media numbers of the people they cast and not their acting prowess. Vinay Pathak and Atul Srivastava have been wasted in this show, which is tragic. The cameos of Aditi Govitrikar, Bhagyashree Patwardhan, and Kabir Bedi do not add any significance. Their characters have been written poorly, and honestly, they somehow don’t fit in.
Life Hill Gayi would have been a decent comedy drama if the makers had invested in writing a good humorous story. Instead, the makers made a mess right from the start. It is a letdown of monumental scale.
