New Delhi: The makers of the iconic television series Sarabhai vs Sarabhai are back with another neighbourhood comedy, Chumbak. The new show brings back Deven Bhojani and Sumeet Raghavan, who played key roles in Sarabhai vs Sarabhai.
Chumbak marks the reunion of writer-director Aatish Kapadia and producer JD Majethia, the creative team behind one of Indian television’s most popular family comedies. The show features an ensemble cast including Neena Gupta, Sumeet Vyas, Sumeet Raghavan, Arjun Bijlani, Mansi Parekh, Anant Joshi, Amyra Dastur, Helly Shah, and Sandeep Dhar.
While Sarabhai vs Sarabhai centred on the comic battle in a joint family with contrasting lifestyles, Chumbak expands the setting to an entire neighbourhood. The new show will explore what happens when five chaotic families begin spending time together in a Mumbai neighbourhood.
What the trailer reveals
The nearly two-minute trailer revolves around Gupta and Bhojani, who play the colony’s senior couple, Rajni and Kuku Merchant. But unlike the usual senior couple expected to be the voice of wisdom, Rajni and Kuku are the centre of the colony’s comic chaos.
Kuku forgets everything, even Rajni’s name. He calls her by various names such as Rajnikanth, Ghajini, and Rohini. Frustrated by his memory lapses, Rajni goes on a hilarious rant and announces she is divorcing Kuku. This puts the fear in the other men of the colony that their wives may also divorce them.
The premise marks a shift from the world of Sarabhai vs Sarabhai, where much of the humour came from the relationship between the sophisticated Maya Sarabhai (Ratna Pathak Shah) and her middle-class daughter-in-law Monisha (Rupali Ganguly).
The show’s popularity continued long after its original run ended. Its official sequel, Sarabhai vs Sarabhai: Take 2, arrived as a web series in 2017, 11 years after the original show. The sequel reunited most of the characters for another chapter. The show was planned as a short web series with only 10 episodes.
Chumbak is set to premiere on 10 September.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
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