The Royals REVIEW: Ishaan Khatter, Bhumi Pednekar’s Royal Drama Has Good Amounts Of Love, Deceit And Turmoil To Make It An Apt Binge-Worthy Show

Film:
The Royals

Director: Priyanka Ghose, Nupur Asthana

Writer: Neha Veena Sharma, Vishnu Sinha, Iti Agarwal

Cast: Bhumi Pednekar, Ishaan Khatter, Sakshi Tanwar, Zeenat Aman, Nora Fatehi, Vihaan Samat, Dino Morea, Milind Soman, Chunky Panday, Lisa Mishra, Sumukhi Suresh, Luke Kenny, Kavya Trehan, Udit Arora

Run Time: 8 episodes, approx. 50 minutes each

Platform: Netflix

The Royals Review

Directed by Priyanka Ghose and Nupur Asthana, Netflix’s The Royals is a fun, binge-worthy series that will take you a wild ride with romance and drama as a on-the-verge-of-bankruptcy royal family and a CEO strike a deal for their mutual benefits. But are they successful in bringing each other

The Royals begins with Sophia Kanmani Shekhar (Bhumi Pednekar) gearing up for the biggest pitch of her life while attending an award function in Sri Lanka. During a morning beach run, she is stopped owing to a VIP photoshoot being held there; however, being a strongheaded CEO (who is also quite impulsive) Sophia breaks the barricade and continues her run, resulting in havoc on the sets. Here we are introduced to the VIP, Aviraaj Singh aka Fizzy (Ishaan Khatter) – the soon-to-be crowned Maharaj of Morpur. After another not-so-pleasant encounter between the ‘horse boy’ and ‘beach girl’, the duo head to a hotel room for a steamy night which abruptly ends owing to phone calls from their family and work, respectively.

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After returning to their worlds, the two once more meet when a deal is struck between Sophia company and the royals of Morpur, wherein Sophia and her team will renovate their palace (that’s nearly in shambles) and transform it into a Royal BnB – where the common man can experience the royal life while living with the family. Once in the palace, Sophia meets Digvijay Singh (Vihaan Samat) and gets to know he’s not the king, but the prince and Aviraaj is the one in charge. After almost losing the business deal to a competitor, the maharaja and CEO decide to work together as the royals desperately need the money and Sophia needs the BnB to succeed to survive.

The 8-episode-long series focuses on how, despite coming on the same page, the two continue to clash, fall in love, face the many skeletons coming out of the closet more clashes, relationship fallouts, broken dreams and lots more. Read our review to know if it’s worth a watch.

What Works

The comedy, the romance, the music, the visuals, the costumes, the dialogues – all these aspects make Netflix’s The Royals a fun watch that you are sure to wrap watching in one go.

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What Doesn’t Work

The characters lack depth, and those that have it have little to no screen presence.

Technical Analysis

Writing & Storyline

In one word, the writing is inconsistent. It’s patchy, it’s weak at points and even unbelievable (even more than a maharaja falling in love with a commoner and expressing his true feelings). The first time you notice the writing stumble is in episode 1 as the base of the series’ ‘enemy turn into lovers’ plot seems to be out of place and forced.

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The Royals Cast

The Royals features an ensemble cast including both senior actors and freshers. While talents like Sakshi Tanwar, Zeenat Aman, Dino Morea, Milind Soman and Chunky Pandey are some of the senior names part of the show, young talents like Ishaan Khatter, Bhumi Pednekar, Vihaan Samat, Kavya Trehan, Yashaswini Dayama, Nora Fatehi and debutants Lisa Mishra and Sumukhi Suresh are the impressive youngsters.

Ishaan Khatter embodies the part of Maharaja Aviraaj Singh to perfection. His performance, dialogue delivery, saas, dance, horse-riding, style, aura (I can keep going on) is all on-point. However, the only drawback is his character’s arc and Aviraaj’s tendency to switch his romantic partners as often as his mother buys diamond jewellery.

Bhumi Pednekar delivers a somewhat believable performance, however, it’s not one of her strongest. She’s loud and flat in scenes (and sometimes it’s the same scene). Her stylish have done her disservice as there are time you will be left questioning if the makers took into consideration how real-life CEO looks. Not just her looks, but her dialogue delivery too falters and makes you wonder if it’s the same actress who impress us in films like Dum Laga Ke Haisha and Sonchiriya.

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Sakshi Tanwar is amazing. The manner in which she carries herself may remind you of Maya Sarabhai; however, she still manages to look regal and convey that she’s a Rajasthani queen. She’s one of the side actors who has a story and an arc worth sticky to know more about. Her playfulness, her motherlove and her love for diamonds will evoke emotions just like she did as Parvathi in Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii.

Aside from the above-mentioned three characters, the others who left an impression are Aviraaj’s royal twin sibling Digvijay Singh aka Diggy (Vihaan Samat) and Divyaranjini Singh aka Jinni (Kavya Trehan), and to a certain extent Lisa Mishra, Sumukhi Suresh and Udit Arora. The veteran stars you maybe most excited to see – Zeenat Aman, Dino Morea, Milind Soman and Chunky Pandey, are not side characters but more like special appearances in the show. Nora Fatehi too has a limited role and her character will make you blood boil.

Conclusion

If you love rom-coms, Netflix’s The Royals is a tailor-made show for you. It has the right amounts of romances, comedy and drama, making it a modern-day fairy tale worth binge-watching. However, it does stumble in giving all it’s characters enough screen time.

Watch the trailer of The Royals here:

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Grinell Jacinto

With nearly 10 years of experience, Grinell Esther Jacinto is the Desk Head of Bollywood Bubble. Her interests lie in everything that is kaleshi and she loves to dig deeper into the lives of B-town actors. She has a problem though – she loves horror films but will have chills the minute the theatres lights dims. She’s previously worked with Koimoi, UrbanAsian and SpotboyE.