Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper review: This pulp fiction satire is fun but too distracted for its hefty messaging!

Netflix's Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper is all things wacky but given the issues it's trying to raise, the show misses the opportunity to leave a lasting impact! 

India and its people are obsessed with Bollywood masala films that bottle up emotion, drama, tragedy, action, and romance, all in one. All of these are found in our normal lives, too! Hence, as common folks, we often wonder what our lives would look like when turned into a Bollywood film. Working on the same principle, Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper aspires to do the same. It spins a simple family man's life into a macho heroic arc while discussing the dual lives we all lead in the form of repressed desires and emotions. But it fails to build it all together and doesn't translate well onscreen. 

With many parallel arcs, the show's plot has a lot going on - a morally honest CA topper, Tribhuvan Mishra (Manav Kaul), works in Noida and lives with his wife who loves to bake and has two kids. His brother-in-law and his wife are constant intruders in their less-is-more-happy life. Pushed to the curb by his money being frozen in a bank and constantly berated for not being man enough, he enters into a double life by working as a gigolo, which is how he meets Bindi (Tillotama Shome), who is just as sexually frustrated as she is lonely in her marriage. This ends with Mishraji coming face to face with the Halwais, who also moonlight as contract killers, and right amidst a murder investigation by the police, the world of gang wars and corruption, his innocent life is upside down.

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Created by Puneet Krishna (Mirzapur), the show is like the rainbow-coloured escapism of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi suddenly clashing with Sathya's raw realism. But while this concept of Guns and Roses sounds insanely interesting, the overtly stretched show with one too many hour-long episodes, widespread and overcrowded with loose arcs (aching for their own spin-offs), makes for a chaotic and messy ride. This nine-episode series is made in a way that it entertains and shocks you in every episode. Hence, every heavy-handed theme like the burden of being a man, suppressed houswives, loneliness in marriage, one-sided love, queer love, and being a male sex worker is reduced to one-liners or dramatic moments. Everything here is incidental to furthering the narrative without any logical exploration; whether it is Dhaincha's revenge arc, Shobha's rise as a criminal queen or Mihsraji's stint as a gigolo. Even the stereotypical depiction of sex is disheartening because for a show that wants to talk about the repressed sexual desires of women also reduces it to cliche montages and fodder for making CA Topper the hero who understands women. 

But it's not all down the hill. To the show's credit, much effort has been put into developing its world, which is rooted in its Noida setting; from the love for junk street food and gun shootouts to egoistic wars of colourful language, this Mirzapur effect of Noida works because it's not too far-fetched. Even the cinematography and colour palette heighten the beauty of the lives of middle-class people, making it look cinematic. Moreover, the show's general obsession with Bollywood and cinema, whether it is lacing with references or daydreaming scenarios, speaks about how films completely influence our lives. And, of course, the extremely talented ensemble cast of Manav Kaul, Tillotama Shome, Shubhrajyoti Barat, Ashok Pathak, Amarjeet Singh, Faisal Mallik, Shweta Basu Prasad, Sumit Gulati, and many others who are so apt for their roles that they elevate their performance, making them pop culture references. 

Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper is fun, cool, stylish and weird in all its glory! But how long can you be just in awe of the shows' experiments, especially when you can see its untapped potential? It makes you wonder whether this series is deliberate in its tokenistic method or the makers got confused about the direction in which they wanted to take it! This is why I think there are two ways to view this one; either you give into its pleasures and enjoy it for being an absolute wild ride or be disappointed about how a show, based on a topper, settles for entertaining rather than being cohesive. 

Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper is currently streaming on Netflix! 

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