Single Papa review: An interesting premise that fails to hold your attention

Starring Kunal Kemmu, Neha Dhupia and Prajakta Koli amongst many others, Single Papa lacks heart and does not connect with you as a viewer.

Single Papa review: In cinema we have seldom seen stories around single mothers and their struggles around raising a child. When it comes to the dad, he is always shown to be a substitute parent or someone the child has a toxic relationship with. So when Single Papa seemed to be a story about a man who desperately wanted to raise a child, it felt like something we had never seen before! The expectations were set and I was intrigued to see whether this would be another prolific character development story we didn’t see coming our way. Unfortunately, the show was none of that and falls flat on its execution! 

Created by Ishita Moitra and Neeraj Udhwani, and directed by Shashank Khaitan, Single Papa feels more like a comedy of errors than a story that actually wants to be taken seriously. It revolves around Gaurav Gehlot (Kunal Kemmu), a chauvinistic man-child who has only lived in his privileged bubble so far. He divorces his wife because even though the two love each other a lot, she does not see herself becoming a mother, and he on the other hand desperately wants a child. After being heartbroken he finds himself in a bar and as he makes a move in the car with a girl, he gets the shock of his life. He finds a new born child at the back of his car seat. Even though he cannot make sense of what’s happening, he takes the kid home, only to shock the rest of his family which includes his dad played by Manoj Pahwa, his mother played by Ayesha Raza Mishra and his sister Nammo played by Prajakta Koli. They instantly reject the idea of raising the child but Gaurav takes it as an answer to all his prayers and wants to keep the child with him.

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A hospital mishap later, the child is taken away by an orphanage run by a strict administrator played by Neha Dhupia. That’s where Gaurav’s patience and his skills as a father are tested. The situation makes Gaurav take responsibility and learn how the outside world works. He is introduced to a male nanny (Dayanand Shetty) or ‘manny’ as they say, who was the only unique character in this show. He is sleep deprived, he has to make a safe environment for the baby at home and also make sure the child has a female presence in his life. But even though he takes materialistic responsibilities head on, the show does not show him emotionally growing at all. For someone who desperately wants a child, he barely shows any connection towards the kid. The child felt more like a stubborn wish he wanted to fulfill than something he actually wants to work on. The amount of energy his character wastes in lying to the adoption center could have been used in developing his role into something all of us fall in love with.

Gaurav is not just half-hearted in his parenting, he is half-hearted in his relationships too. He builds somewhat of a half-baked connection with his sister’s to-be sister-in-law, Shreya, a pediatrician played by Aisha Ahmed, all while still being in love with his ex-wife played by Isha Talwar. And it’s not just Gaurav who seems to have a lying problem in his family, his sister and his mother complete the pathologically lying trio as well. His sister is marrying into a rather conservative family and not only does she lie to them about Gaurav’s situation, she also keeps lying to herself to win their hearts and it is in no way empowering or relatable. Fed up with her kids, the mother of the family starts believing in a Guruji and nothing about that helps in elevating the story either.

The series, despite having a strong premise and an ensemble of actors like Kunal Kemmu, Ishita Arun, Prajakta Koli and Manoj Pahwa who are all known for their stellar comic timing, fails to build this into something you’d love to binge on over the weekend! The climax of the series adds to that, felt like an absolute mockery of not just something as serious as adoption but also for the concept of marriage at a time where Indian women are choosing to set boundaries and not take disrespect from their in-laws. While Gaurav stays confused about a plethora of things, one that I am sure about is that Single Papa is a missed opportunity in the sea of OTT content today!

All episodes of Single Papa are currently streaming on Netflix!

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