The world is full of ironies, and one of the biggest ironies of the present independent web content in the country can be experienced while watching this series at ZEE5 titled
KARENJIT KAUR The Untold Story of Sunny Leone. It brings in some pleasant surprises for the viewers and
you can now see the complete series with its finale season also online.
As a biographical account of the happening life of the controversial figure, no doubt it has some references of her work as an adult star including a few bold scenes featuring Sunny and others too. But the irony is that where everyone else is unnecessary inserting bold and sensual scenes in their web-series in almost every genre including one about Indian Wedding Planners, a series revolving around the life of an adult star doesn’t emphasize on such forceful insertions and doesn’t take any undue advantage of the opportunity, giving you the actual picture.
As an uncensored web-series based on the life story of Sunny Leone, it is actually more of an emotional family drama, focused on herself, her parents and her brother, instead of her unusual profession. Though there are sequences about her infamous assignments and professional life, they are very short with fast intercuts, showing that the series is not only about that.
Directed by Aditya Datt, it’s exactly about The Untold Story of KARENJIT KAUR and not the widely told one. The series revolves around her teenage years, her father who couldn’t find a job due to his Sikh-turban, her mother who is addicted to drinking, her brother who wishes to become a famous chef and the tough times they faced together due to financial constraints and social humiliation within the community.
The first season of KARENJIT KAUR The Untold Story (10 episodes of 20 min each) begins with a journalist interviewing Sunny trying to embarrass her with his sharp questions. But little did he know that the lady would answer him back with grace, telling him about her school days, her entry into the field of modeling for adult magazine and films, her first relationship, the individual struggles of her family members, her rise in the chosen stream of work, revelation in front of the parents and her appearance on Richard Stone’s radio show bringing a storm in her life.
The second season of Karenjit Kaur consists of 6 episodes that talk about the presidential elections in the US, Sunny’s confrontation with her mother, her new business plans, meeting with Daniel and a trauma faced by the family. This season is more of an emotional ride, with the director thoughtfully focusing on the mother-daughter relationship in particular presented in an appreciable manner.
The third (final) season has 4 episodes that focus on her life post her mother’s demise. It shows how she dealt with her father’s new partner, his sudden illness, beginning of Sunny’s own production house, her marriage and entry in the Indian reality show Big Boss. The third season ends with Sunny’s arrival in India (without getting into the next phase of her life as a Big Boss contestant and later as a Hindi film actress), the narration keeps moving back to flashbacks in the entire series (including some repetitions) but the tone largely remains the same without any explosions as such maintaining the family drama.
Sunny Leone looks fine playing herself, and she must have gone through an
emotionally difficult time living those days again.
Grusha Kapoor as the mother plays it well too but does tend to get carried away in a few sequences.
Karamvir Lamba is entertaining as
Sunny’s supportive brother, and he did strongly remind me of
Ranjit Chowdhry in social Hindi comedies
KHATTA MEETHA, BATON BATON MEIN and
KHUBSOORAT. The supporting cast is just okay with a bit annoying
Raj Arjun playing the interviewer, whereas
Bijay Jasjit Anand is the most impressive as
Sunny’s caring father.
The direction never tends to go over the top taking unfair advantage of the subject and never stresses upon the original clippings too, making it subtle to a large extent. The tone mostly remains calm, focused on family affairs, and so does the background score, which possibly remain the reason why one finds the excitement missing, especially in the early episodes. Also the dubbing in Hindi sounds a bit inept at times, though the production design, art direction and cinematography is more than fine along with its fabulous title/theme music. Moreover, the entire team of writer-director and actors take extra care to shoot every sequence related to Sikh religion and its practice, maintaining dignity with respect along with raising some valid issues.
Admitting the fact, yes KARENJIT KAUR The Untold Story can easily be criticized as ‘an image building’ practice by Sunny, but the series doesn’t give any justifications for her choices made, keeping it quite real. Plus what is more commendable is the fact that neither the makers nor Sunny try to play any dirty tricks of the trade for bringing in an added viewership. Despite revolving around a family, the series surely cannot be seen as a family show, but at the same time, it is much less obscene and not vulgar in comparison to many other adult rated shows on the web portals, which might be disappointing for the viewers expecting the obvious.
As a matter of fact, the series rightly clears the very doubt that why it was named Karenjit Kaur The Untold Story bringing forward the original name?
It was done so, as it is actually all about Karenjit Kaur and her family and not Sunny Leone!
Rating : 3 / 5
