Bakaiti review: TVF’s Gullak’s cousin struggles to find its own voice!

Yet another heartwarming middle-class family drama,  Bakaiti tries to have a relatable take on everyday struggles with light-hearted bickering but despite its efforts, it falls short of having an emotional impact.

It wasn’t long ago that the Mishra parivar, with their middle-class problems and some sweet, heartwarming bickering, arrived on our screens. A relatable show where Tehri was always disappointing and a Gullak silently witnessed it all, dropping in philosophical musings, turning stories within aging four walls into reflections of our own lives, where the last bit of toothpaste was squeezed out, the washing machine wheezed its final breath, and the Mishra family of four wrapped life’s little kisse into moments that never begged to be stories. Dice Media’s Bakaiti wants to do the same. It introduces us to another middle-class family, the Kataria's, whose lives unfold through heartfelt banter or as the show calls it, bakaiti. But while it aspires to capture the charm of everyday chaos, its ride through bickering and banter struggles to land as a cohesive or emotionally resonant whole.

Living in Ghaziabad, the Kataria family consists of Sanjay Kataria (Rajesh Tailang), a small-time advocate making ends meet through notary work, his wife Sushma (Sheeba Chaddha), a typical housewife tied to the kitchen but dreaming of opening her own boutique. They have two children - Naina (Tanya Sharma), a scholar and topper aspiring to pursue post-graduation in Mumbai and Bharat (Aditya Shukla), a local-level cricketer who talks big but does little. Also living with them is Sushma’s father, who conveniently avoids conversations by blaming it on his hearing issues. As the bakaiti begins with the morning hustle of tea, breakfast, and everyone scrambling to get up and get ready, it’s humorously punctuated by the repetitive alarm of the water motor blaring, “paani ki tanki bhar gayi, motor band kariye.” Amid this chaos, and the siblings fighting about who will switch off the motor, we learn that Sanjay has decided to rent out a room for extra income which inevitably means Naina and Bharat, must now share a room. A ticking time bomb that, unsurprisingly, only adds to the bakaiti in the house!

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The tragedy of Bakaiti is that it falls squarely into the category of shows stuck in the shadow of a much-loved predecessor. When a series like Gullak has already mastered the blend of middle-class struggles with heartwarming humour, anything that follows needs to work twice as hard to carve out its own space. And while there’s nothing wrong with hopping on a trend, it’s worth remembering that it only works when you bring something new to the table. In that sense, Bakaiti does have moments worth appreciating but it doesn’t quite manage to step out of that looming shadow.

One of its fresher elements is the sibling dynamic. Instead of the usual two brothers, we get a delightful brother-sister relationship between Naina and Bharat, two people who look ready to kill each other at any moment but would also kill for each other in the next. It's the classic sibling equation of hiding bad exam results from parents, leaving dirty socks around just to annoy the other, or cutting the music mid-workout out of pure spite. Their relationship is defined by constant teasing, disagreements, fights, and then patching up over pakoras on Raksha Bandhan. Tanya Sharma and Aditya Shukla bring a genuine charm to this equation. Tanya plays Naina with the soft burden of being the responsible elder daughter, one who still dreams with a Peter Pan-like innocence. Aditya, on the other hand, nails the role of the annoying younger sibling - confused, aimless, but the kind who is your best friend and worst enemy rolled into one.

TVF and Dice Media are two platforms that once set the gold standard for relatable, slice-of-life streaming content. Just like Rajesh Tailang and Sheeba Chaddha, two actors you can always trust to deliver. But somewhere, it feels like the platforms that once helped define Indian web storytelling are now struggling to keep up with their own standards. And Tailang and Chaddha alone can’t carry a 7-episode show weighed down by a poorly written script and clunky editing. Threads exist but no one’s connecting them effectively. Often, information is thrown at you just to trigger a character’s emotional reaction without building proper context. For instance, when Naina starts developing an innocent crush on Chirag, the tenant, his past is revealed in such a spoon fed way that it feels less like character development and more like an excuse to break Naina’s heart. Even the death of an important family member feels less like a genuine emotional moment and more like a lazy narrative device simply used to spark a fight between Sanjay and his younger brother Ajay over the generational Kataria house.

The idea of exploring middle-class struggles where money is always tight no matter how much you earn, dreams are often compromised and despite working endlessly to make ends meet, the real fight to preserve memories is a strong one. A generational home naturally holds these layers as one child grows up and steps into the world while another prepares to take the same journey. But a good idea isn’t enough especially when a high-potential concept is delivered so underwhelmingly that you're left surprised at how something with moments that almost hit the right notes can still feel so forgettable as a whole. Bakaiti falls into that trap! It needs to realise that while the bakaiti may keep things lively, real resonance in storytelling doesn't come from noise alone.

Bakaiti is currently streaming on Zee5!

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