Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Starring: Sunil Grover, Ranvir Shorey, Mukul Chaddha, Girish Kulkarni

Streaming on: Zee5

To watch or not to watch: Good in pieces, not as a whole

The story of the series is about the lives of some of the residents of an apartment complex called Sunflower. One morning, one of the residents of the society, Mr. Kapoor (Ashwin Kaushal), is murdered by his neighbour, Mr. Ahuja (Mukul Chadda). What follows is an investigation into the murder by two police officers, Inspector DG and Sub-Inspector Tambe (Ranvir Shorey and Girish Kulkarni). Sonu Singh (Sunil Grover) is the protagonist and falls under suspicion due to his erratic nature. Along with the main story line with a protagonist, we also have an ensemble cast and an insight in the lives of a select few residents and one person each related to them.

Over-all the series is funny, sometimes thrilling and mostly lost. There are too many sub-plots, which have nothing to do with the main plot and have nothing to do in general, except probably elicit some laughs. In each of the 8 episodes, we have Dilip Iyer (Ashish Vidhyarthi) interviewing and rejecting potential residents because of one or the other social bias. There are certain points in Sonu’s character which throw an insight into his past life and make the viewers feel there’s more than meets the eye. All this has nothing to do with the main plot, even tangentially. After about more than half the series is over, you wonder if the series even has anything to do with the murder mystery. Sunflower society and slowly and suddenly takes center stage and things revolve around it.

There is a conflict between the advertisement and the real idea of the series. it comes off as more of an ensemble cast series than a thriller series. Since it is going head-to-head with an acclaimed thriller series, The Family Man, it needed to be made more in-line with the advertisement or changed the messaging. If one has watched these two series together, Sunflower will definitely lose. Though it does go head-and-head with the performances.

The webseries these days have latched on to the nostalgia effect, by getting older actor, who were quite popular in the yesteryears to come back and act in the series. While it is commendable and gets more viewers along with the promise of good performances, it can be overdone, specially when it is the focal point of the series. After finishing watching the series, the only thought that makes a viewer feel they haven’t wasted their time, that all the loose threads and the unresolved sub-plots make for a good foundation for season 2. Right on the heels of that, is the knowledge that each episode is only about 30 minutes long and has only 8 episodes (though it didn’t need even that for the amount of content it had). That might be the only reason for people to watch the second season, to get some closure. All in all, if one is not suffering from FOMO, skip it.