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Netflix

At one point of time in the last episode, it felt like my living room is filling up with smoke and I could smell the acrid fumes of the burning theater. The series waits until the very last episode to actually depict the tragic event and completely focuses on languish of the grieving parents, and their toil through the court case with a foregone conclusion through its first six episodes.

The parents grinded away for 25 years fighting the losing battle through the gut-wrenchingly prolonged delay when the rich and the powerful were afforded privileges of tampering with evidence, skipping court dates and pushing dates further and further away at their will. The listless melancholy that envelopes the series and the languid pace that is maintained is tactfully designed for the viewer to actually experience some of the drudgery in the comfort of their living room. It is not a court room drama; it is not a series that ends on high note or preach any social message. It takes you on a time-travel ride to 1997 and lets you be a bystander outside Uphaar cinema as the fire rages on and people perish. And while your outside escapes the fire, your inside smolders to black charcoal. It numbs you to hopelessness and you feel indifferent to the sheer absurdity of locking people in the balcony seats of a theater and the gross unaccountability of the several failures that culminates to the entire tragedy.

In one scene, when some of the hapless victims are trying to push the theater door trying to escape fire and others are pushing back because there is no room on the other side, the series will actually suffocate you. Every thump on the door will be felt inside your gut...

I wish to comment on so many other things, from acting, direction, cinematography, story, dialog etc. But my feelings about the series can be summed up in just one sentence: "Maybe some things last forever after all" (Luke Combs). It's a product of so much love, care, heart and courage by the whole team, especially by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, the parents of the two children who are credited with the story, that the series will live inside every viewer for their lifetime.

The thing about Zakir Khan is he is a wordsmith first and a comic second. The choice of words, the delivery, the life lessons are so masterful that many parts of his set is quotable. He is India's George Carlin.

There are very few stand-up comics who you genuinely love. The way Indian audience love Arijit Singh and how an Indian city would come to standstill when Arijit performs, traffics rerouted, areas cordoned off, entire football ground converted to parkings, Zakir Khan is in that league of comics, Indian audience genuinely loves him.

Talking about the set, this set is extremely experiential. You need to sit down and watch the set, laugh, chuckle, smirk, hide a few laughs and dry your eyes from time to time. This set can be but need not be summarized in a few lines. Just like most of Carlin's sets.

All I want to say about the set is, you can wear this set as a winter coat when things feel cold around you, and it will keep you warm. And if you need a non-Carlin reference to gauge how good it is, think of Panchayat Season 1 or Kota Factory Season 1.

Zakir, if you are reading this, you kept the magic intact through out. Spellbound!

Neal has apparently toured across the country with this set in 2021 when it was named as "Unacceptable". Unacceptable is actually a pretty good description of the entire set. Once the credits started rolling, I wondered how the paying audience might have felt while driving home, an hour long standup which was meant to be profound, turning out to be a joyless and painful exercise, a true traumedy (sic). At this point, I really want to comment on how I had thought 3 Mics was a great routine and I had 10 starred it at IMDB and left a gushing review, but as Neal said, I would not.

So Neal found a niche for his work: depression and mental health. And while he was scratching surface in his previous special, he goes knee deep with it in this one. If you drink every time he says, "there is something wrong with me" or the sorts, you'd not just be sloshed by the end of the show, you are risking death from alcohol poisoning. That repetition itself is harrowing. And there is no relief in the entire set. It is one depressive thought after another without much joy, mirth or plain laughter. The show is so not fun that it is puzzling that Ted Sarandos, a great man who serves as Netflix's Chief Content Officer, gave it a go ahead. The only time I laughed during the show is when his name was mentioned in a bit.

Neal, if you happen to read this, just like you get anxiety flare-ups near people drinking alcohol, many others suffering from some of the same afflictions as yours (e.g., I do) do not feel great about an hour long standup held together by the motif of depression which never veers away from it. Some of them may like the issue to be talked about more openly, even addressed in a standup, and all the reassurance, compassion, warmth and comfort that comes with three lines of hope you created after the lights are dimmed, but not straight one hour of it. You basically alienated many from that group by being so self-deprecating and so narrowly single-minded, I would never buy a ticket for you show. And I'd read reviews and decide carefully before I watch if there is a next Netflix special. You genuinely triggered in me deep blues with your set.