Created by Ishita Pritish Nandy and Rangita Pritish Nandy, “The Royals” is a massive squandered opportunity. With the time-tested narrative templates of the royals and commoners meeting, clashing, and striking romances, the terrain is rich for high drama, impossible glamour, and plentiful eye candy. Avijraaj Singh (Ishaan Khatter) has returned to his home in Morpur’s Motibagh palace for the reading of his father’s will. He’s named the successor to the throne, which he has no interest in, having spent his life running away from royal duties. However, Morpur is sinking into debt. Huge parts of the estate are falling through due to a lack of maintenance. The family has a luxurious lifestyle, to cushion which they need some sort of miracle.
It’s in Sophia (Bhumi Pednekar) that this reversal of fortunes seems plausible. A CEO at a business start-up, she pitches a deal for the royals to mingle with the commoners, an exclusive experience that stands to financially benefit the palace and rescue it. Of course, we know where it’s all headed. Sparks fly between Sophia and Aviraj, even before they meet as business partners. There’s some chafing, and they don’t get off to the best start. But an edge of erotic attraction is immediate and undeniable. There’s even Zeenat Aman as the Morpur matriarch, all preening and styled in high couture, but her accent, manners come off as tediously practised very quickly. It’s like she’s performing for a certain rehearsed tone we’d expect the show to naturally summon, only that it’s being unconvincingly tacked on at a later stage.
It’s one thing for a show to be frivolous and diverting, quite another when it uses that as a smokescreen for its inherent laziness. Potential for drama is wiped out by a barrage of cliches that are dutifully regurgitated. The arcs are exhaustingly familiar, conflicts hastily resolved. Instead of the central duo, the supporting actors glimmer brighter. Especially Sakshi Tanwar, as Aviraaj’s mother, and Vihaan Samat, as his ignored brother with a gift for cooking, leave us wishing for more.
Tanwar leans into a delectable campiness, alternating with fierce maternal protectiveness, once again reminding this is an actor who can lift the dullest material with a spark in her eyes. Samat also brings in ample charm. The princess, who complains she’s got nothing to do, is just defined by her queerness. It all leads into a buried family secret that doesn’t take any special intelligence to suss out before it’s underlined for us.
“The Royals” devotes a chunk of its appeal to priming Khatter’s desirability. An attraction towards him, weaponized by endless bare-chested displays, almost becomes the plank holding up the show. It’s as if to reassure us and underline emphatically, this is how Pednekar’s character is drawn to the prince. Sophia finds him initially entitled and haughty, swimming in his privileges without a care for his family or their sinking fortunes. All the to-be Maharaja is seeking is fun and escape. But responsibilities are about to be dumped on him.
Royal dramas warrant a generous dose of bite, sauciness, and provocation. We look for ego trips, messy fights, inheritance feuds, and spite from being perennially passed over. The series takes small helpings of each element, without building up to a full course meal, which we can relish. Spreading it over eight unreasonably overlong episodes, the series has all the makings of an indulgent, overwrought, stale disaster. Not just originality, even a flare of bitchiness, sparring to be revelled in and gloated over can be found anywhere in close range.
“The Royals” is too tame to wade into the salaciousness, veering to a modest pose. All our attention is largely directed to marvelling at the styling, which also begins to rankle and fade into a disinterested blur in the absence of a strong, coherent narrative. The writing is weak, hesitant to stick it out with characters and their tantrums and hurt, and misalliances. Some sneer at each other, others give lusty stares. But little really amounts to anything compelling or that can leave a smouldering sensation in the frame. The usually reliable Pednekar struggles to find a balance of confidence and vulnerability as her character is hit by a swell of crises, more than she can handle at one go.
Nothing is holding “The Royals” together into being a mindless, frothy weekend watch, that would just coast by easily. To even make a simple reworking land, some wit is needed. The show lacks that in great proportions. Khatter does a lot in injecting emotional weight into his part, but “The Royals” keeps pulling him down, undoing his best efforts.
