Gullak 4 | Webseries Review

Director & Creator: Shreyansh Pandey
Cast: Jameel Khan, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Vaibhav Raj Gupta, Harsh Mayar, Sunita Rajwar
Streaming On: Sony Liv
Rating: ⭐⭐(2/5)

Gullak 4: What’s It About
“Dar aur tanaav aisa zeher hai jise thoda thoda lene se middle class ki immunity bahut badh gayi hai.” The fourth season of Gullak arrives with another set of middle-class struggles. The TVF drama that has been closest to the real life of an ordinary working-class family has been feeding on nostalgia for the past three seasons.

However, it takes a major shift with the fourth season where the Mishra Family is coming-of-age, leaving the nostalgia and entering the present world problems. But the five episodes are scattered more than necessary, failing to follow a linear setup.

The trailer of Gullak 4 clearly hinted at being a tale of adulting vs. parenting. But the essence comes only with the last episode with major conversations happening in the last 20 minutes of the show. The rest of the episodes get saved by endearing performances by the Mishra family that peep through the loopholes of the storyline.

Script Analysis:
Shreyansh Pandey has been creating the past three seasons of Gullak but takes over as the director, writer, and creator of the show. Over the five episodes, this time, Gullak 4 does not dive deep, touching the chords it used to in the previous seasons. And thus, it arrives with the weakest season, where the emotions are not backed by strong writing. Earlier, winning a kitty party by Mrs. Mishra felt like a personal achievement, or Annu Mishra’s struggle for a career was intriguing enough for the audience to root for the Mishras.

But this time, Gullak does not make you happy to cry. It just passes away with the five episodes scattered over day-to-day mundane things that are not appealing enough. Even the recalls like Tehri being called disappointed feel stale despite the punch being the winner of the first season, where an entire episode on Tehri could have won the audience.

Gullak arrives only in the last 20 minutes in an underwhelming tone that leaves disappointment and a sigh since you keep disconnecting with the story.

Star Performance:
By now, the Mishra Family, played by Jameel Khan, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Vaibhav Raj Gupta, and Harsh Mayar, who play Santosh Mishra, Shanti Mishra, Annu Mishra, and Aman Mishra, know their characters well and enter the skin to perfection. In fact, it is their endearing performance that saves the day for the weakest season of Gullak.

But Sunita Rajwar’s Bittu Ki Mummy, arriving at the climax for 5 minutes, acts as the show stealer, breaking the mundanity of the show since the first episode.

What Works:
Of course, the story of the Mishra family is something everyone is interested in and it works for the show. There are moments when you look forward to the feeling of where this would go. Right from buying curtains for an old wall to selling off the old kabaad. The woman of the family feels finished after a chain-snatching event to the parents questioning their parenting when the child goes wrong. Gullak has its elements in place.

What Doesn’t Work:
The best part of Gullak was the narrator – a piggy bank (Gullak) who used to narrate the entire happenings of the Mishra Family in beautifully written dialogues that were the essence of this show. The Gullak was half empty, probably because the rattle of the coins turned into melody when they were translated into beautiful monologues that concluded the episodes. That essence in season 4 went missing since none of the dialogues by Gullak will make you smile except for one or two.

In the past seasons, the hero of Gullak has been the narration by the Gullak in the opening and closing scenes, but it falls very weak on that narration this season.

Apart from the weak writing, Gullak suffers from too much mundanity, which makes it look scattered. The tale of adulting that should have been the basic premise for the five episodes arrives only with the last episode.

Last Words:
Gullak Season 4 leaves you in a dilemma. It is that show which I have loved and endeared. I have laughed and cried with the Mishra Family, rooting for their struggles and being proud of their achievements as if they were mine. But it feels like the family has now created a distance, and despite trying hard, I am not feeling the same way they made me feel. I want to love and adore them; it’s just that the warmth is missing, and when I see them from this distance, I see the loopholes as well.

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