Shekhar Home Review: Bengali Sherlock Takes Too Long To Get Off The Ground

In the Peacock original Poker Face, Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) is on the run, driving across the US to hide from her angry casino boss. Along the way, she encounters a range of people from all walks of life, and more excitingly, murders, which she deftly solves with her superhuman ability to detect lies. Each episode presents a new case, with unique characters and an exciting puzzle. The series effectively straddles mystery, comedy, and crime, alternating smart deduction with hilarious punchlines. 

Created by Srijit Mukherji and Aniruddha Guha, the JioCinema series Shekhar Home has a similar premise and attempts to create a comparable alchemy by loosely drawing on stories by Arthur Conan Doyle.

The tone of the series remains lighthearted and low stakes, its attitude towards the source material playful rather than reverential. However, the humour feels too staged and the writing too lacklustre to do justice to Conan Doyle’s rich narratives and vivid characters. Closer to home, too, Shekhar Home doesn’t have the wit of an episodic show like Guilty Minds, and certainly lacks the depth of dramas like Kohrra or Dahaad. It’s never a good sign if a series reminds you of others but doesn’t measure up to any of them.

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Shekhar Home is set largely in the fictional town of Lonpur, West Bengal, in 1993. Produced by BBC Studios India, the six-episode series follows the titular consulting detective Shekhar (Kay Kay Menon), a Bengali Sherlock Holmes, who’s joined by a new paying guest, Dr. Jayvrat (Ranvir Shorey) in a guest house run by Mrs Henry, or Mrs. H (Shernaz Patel). Like Sherlock and Watson, Shekhar and Jayvrat start a crime-solving company; Sherlock’s brother, Mycroft, becomes Mrinmay (Kaushik Sen); the bumbling police officer, Lestrade, turns into Laha (Rudranil Ghosh); and Sherlock’s flame, Irene Adler, is Irabaty (Rasika Dugal). Of course, Sherlock's iconic adversary, Moriarty, or M (Kirti Kulhari), features as well.

The first four episodes explore different cases in and around Lonpur, from a murder or two, to a robbery, to supposed spirit possession. Aside from a few elements, though––like Irabaty and Shekhar’s dynamic and to some extent, some thrilling revelations of family secrets in “Bhaskar Villa” (episode 4)––these are utterly boring and inert.

The series tries too hard to establish the camaraderie between Shekhar and Jayvrat, which feels more contrived than complementary. Many of the jokes don’t land, often bordering on cringey. But importantly, the cases aren’t clever or compelling enough for the episodic format. 

Much of the information is conveyed through awkward dialogue and flashbacks shown with voiceovers explaining the proceedings. Murderers are revealed out of nowhere. It feels like there’s a lot going on, but it’s all impossible to care about. These sluggish episodes drag on, and you’re left wondering why Menon would waste his time with this, after such meaty roles in Farzi, Bambai Meri Jaan, and The Railway Men in 2023 alone. His performance doesn’t disappoint, though. 

Menon plays Shekhar with Sherlock’s quintessential casual nonchalance. He can’t match the suave, sexy sophistication of Benedict Cumberbatch or Robert Downey Jr, but he doesn’t even try to.

Donning colourful batik kurtas and often lost in thought strumming the rabab, Menon’s Shekhar is a more brooding, reflective, and quietly brilliant Sherlock. Shorey, meanwhile, is just serviceable: his portrayal of Jayvrat feels laboured, which is a major barrier to connecting with the central Watson-Holmes dynamic. The supporting cast is uniformly reliable, especially Dugal and Sen. While Kulhari earnestly plays the villainous M, she’s hardly believable as a Bangladeshi fighter; it’s impossible to get past her anglicised Hindi and sanitised appearance. 

Each of the first few episodes ends with a looming threat of M, making viewers wonder: who is she and what’s her connection with Shekhar? Why is Shekhar living in Lonpur as a paying guest? Why does he really go by Shekhar Home? (there’s a nice little Easter Egg to Conan Doyle’s original here). Episode 5 depicts an extended flashback to two years earlier, which answers these questions. Directed by Rohan Sippy, these last two episodes feel so distinct from the first four––directed by Srijit Mukherjee––that they could be from a different series altogether. They’re much more crisp, punchy, and engaging. 

Shekhar Home ends with a satisfying finale that cheekily and inventively uses Rabindranath Tagore as a centrepiece riddle. Finally, even Shekhar and Jayvrat’s dynamic feels more lived-in and natural. Though deliberately camp and outlandish, it’s at least quite fun to watch, a glimpse of what the series could have been. But all too little too late. The series simply takes too long to get off the ground, and the final ride isn’t entirely worth the wait.

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