Backed by Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Films, “Kull: The Legacy of the Raisingghs” has its Rajasthan royals bickering and scheming their way out of a stretched eight-episode series in the fictional city of Bilkaner. Set largely in and around the gorgeously intricate testament of Rajput architecture, the JioHotstar series attempts to be too many things and make too little of a mark. The series’s imaginative idea for the name of a fictional Rajasthani city is to add an ‘L’ to ‘Bikaner.’ Sadly, with its part Agatha Christie and part “Game of Thrones” inspired plot, “Kull” has to take that same ‘L’ when it comes to producing a coherently consistent story. The series shines only in patches, with the lead actors doing the bulk of the praiseworthy work.
Created by Sahir Raza, “Kull” reeks of indecision and oversight. To elaborate, let us look into the initial premise of the story. Three siblings of the titular Raisinggh family meet at their ancestral palace on the occasion of the birthday of the family patriarch, their father, Chandrapratap (Rahul Vohra). There is an intriguing dynamic between the siblings. Let us start with the next man in line of succession, the youngest child of Chandrapratap, Abhimanyu (a superb Amol Parashar). His debauchery knows no limit. Resultantly, he is always proving to be costly for his family, both financially and socially.
Abhimanyu is always coddled by his mother-like elder sister Indrani (Nimrat Kaur), the eldest child of the Raisingghs. Indrani is accompanied by his seemingly loyal husband, Vikram. Vikram is also the son of the state’s chief minister, who happens to be Chandrapratap’s best friend. Then there is the middle child, Kavya (Riddhi Dogra), who is always bickering with Abhimanyu and calling her sister out for not calling Abhimanyu out. There is also Chandrapratap’s illegitimate son, Brij (Gaurav Arora). Apart from Abhimanyu, everyone else seems to be fond of him.
Chandrapratap is shown to be a straight-up fiend. Within ten minutes, he manages to offend all his children and threatens his friend, the chief minister. If this feels like the perfect opportunity for a murder mystery, then you are right. Any person who is aware of the existence of ‘Hercule Poirot’ could see the murder of Chandrapratap from miles away. And writer Chiranjeevi Bajpai does not disappoint there. We get the murder, and we get the detective. A real hard-nosed go-getter named Bhagwan (meaning ‘God’). It was fun to see the tussle between the bloated ego of the royals and the overestimated pride of Bhagwan.
At this juncture, you would probably imagine Bhagwan uncover the truth through the dungeons of dark secrets and death threats. You would expect to see the mystery unraveled by the last episode. And you would be surprisingly wrong. Because “Kull” solves the murder by its fourth episode, the marked midpoint of the series. Bhagwan does not solve it with his wits. An anti-climactic video shows who the murderer is. This is not a radical direction switch done with the precision of an F1 driver, like Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.” This is a drunken and desperate swerve of a tonal shift, reeking of confusion and ambivalence.
After the interval, “Kull” takes the form of the cheap knock-off of “Game of Thrones,” which it always aspires to be. The series was self-aware about that. Abhimanyu has namedropped “Game of Thrones” twice, even noting Brij’s situation being similar to that of Jon Snow. Once you recover from the radical switch from Christie to George R.R. Martin, you might find some patches of brilliance to keep you just about hooked.
One such bright patch is the cinematography. Vivian Singh Sahi’s bold use of negative spaces captures the formidable perfection of the architecture and the rough desolation of the barren landscape beautifully. Then there are the acting performances, especially by the lead triplet portraying the warring siblings. Nimrat Kaur, Riddhi Dogra, and Amol Parashar are at the heart of this story of a dysfunctional family. And they understand the assignment well. Kaur and Dogra bring the different styles of frustration of the two sisters astutely. Kaur’s understatedly regal demeanour is only complemented by Dogra’s exasperated bitterness.
However, it is Parashar’s Joffrey Baratheon-like prince Abhimanyu that takes the cake. Parashar brings the intrinsic abhorrence of Abhimanyu with a smack-him-on-the-face casual ease. It is a character you will love to hate. Much to the credit of Amol Parashar. “Kull” appears to be gunning for a second season. If and when it does get that follow-up season, we can only hope it avoids the stench of indecision. And it can improve upon the patches of aptitude. After all, despite all the flaws, “Kull” is not completely hopeless.
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Kull: The Legacy of the Raisingghs (2025) Series Links: IMDb, JioHotstar
Kull: The Legacy of the Raisingghs (2025) Series Cast: Nimrat Kaur, Amol Parashar, Ridhi Dogra, Gaurav Arora, Rahul Vohra
