I’m not done yet- Endearing One-Man Act, Bollywood style!

Love him or hate him, with his flourishing and much loved eponymous show on Sony, ace comedian Kapil Sharma, is the undisputed king of stand-up comedy in India and has been pretty much sitting on that throne for close to a decade now. He won the Great Indian Laughter Challenge in 2007 and since then there has been no turning back. He went on to win six seasons of Comedy Circus on Sony and after several other TV stints, found his footing as an established TV comic show entertainer with Comedy Nights with Kapil in 2013 on Colors. If you still doubt his credentials, here’s what his resume looks like: Ormax Media rated Sharma the most popular Indian television personality in April 2016. Forbes India ranked him at 11th and 18th in their Celebrity 100 list in the year 2016 and 2017 respectively. In 2013, he was awarded the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year in the entertainment category, and was ranked third in the Most Admired Indian Personality List by The Economic Times in 2015. (Courtesy: Wikipedia). His rise and rise are not without a few stumbling blocks though. 

He has been constantly in the public eye for several controversial tweets. His infamous drunken brawl with his comic rival on the show once, Sunil Grover which led to their eventual fall-out is perhaps what earned him much criticism and the audience’s ire. Frequent stories about his hedonistic tendencies post his success, celebrities’ complaints about his indisciplined ways while on shoot and the highly mocked Family Time with Kapil couldn’t mar his ranking as much as his issues of alcoholism and depression. He has been written off several times during his career only to emerge stronger and apparently, adequately rehabilitated. His film career may have flopped before it even took off but his forte of humorous repartee and highlighting the common man’s life through his earthy jokes have held him in good stead to help revoke his career. What is it then about this overtly ambitious, unflinchingly gregarious and frequently visible TV personality that we can look forward to seeing in Netflix’s I’m Not Done Yet? 

For all those people who account for his following in millions (he has 39 million followers on Instagram), the OTT show shares a rare glimpse of Kapil where the camera is turned on his personal life, successes, failures, struggles, family, love life and upbringing. It is peppered with all the makings of a regular Bollywood potboiler, so well-scripted is it- with dollops of emotion (we see him talk about his father’s death and its repercussions), class conflict (his wife Ginni was from a rich family unlike him) and love and passion (for his family, comedy and entertainment) that ultimately leads to a happy ending full of fame, money and celebrity status. It was refreshing to have someone who has become the nation’s poster boy for laughter to open up about his suffering with depression and his rags-to-riches story (Kapil Sharma’s net worth in 2022 is estimated at INR 245 crores+). At the end of the day, to not buy in to the intense personal connection that he builds with his audience becomes impossible through the show- a trait that helps him retain his irrefutable status till date.

I rate I’m Not Done Yet *** stars.

I’m not Done Yet is now showing on Netflix.