Chumbak Netflix Review: Why These Strange People Feel So Familiar

When I first heard about Chumbak, the names attached to it immediately caught my attention. Aatish Kapadia, JD Majethia, Neena Gupta, and Deven Bhojani are enough to create a certain expectation, especially if you have grown up watching shows like Khichdi, Sarabhai vs Sarabhai, and Baa Bahoo Aur Baby.

But after watching the first eight episodes of Chumbak Season 1, what stayed with me wasn't really the nostalgia. It was the people.

Chumbak Colony is full of strange, dramatic, and sometimes completely ridiculous people. But the funny part is that they don't feel completely fictional. You have probably met someone like them at some point — the person who overreacts to everything, believes the most unbelievable things, or somehow turns a small issue into the biggest event of the day.

That is where Chumbak works for me.

And then there are the people of Chumbak Colony.

The Chumbak cast is one of the biggest reasons I kept watching. Every character has a distinct personality, and the actors seem to know exactly how far they can take it.

Rajni and Kuku Merchant, played by Neena Gupta and Deven Bhojani, are the oldest couple in the colony and easily among my favourites. Rajni is caring while Kuku is forgetful, and their scenes have a comic rhythm that makes them a joy to watch.

Then there are Dharmendra and Kiran Kejriwal, played by Sumeet Raghavan and Sandeepa Dhar. Dharmendra's Comedy Nights with Kunal connection and his habit of dressing up as a woman are completely unexpected, while Kiran is much more grounded.

Micky and Twinkle Oberoi, played by Arjun Bijlani and Helly Shah, are the couple who take PDA to another level. They are so over-the-top that the cringe itself becomes funny.

Adi and Priyanka Khanna, played by Sumeet Vyas and Manasi Parekh, feel a little more familiar. Priyanka's constant anxiety and habit of jumping into conversations before someone has finished speaking are the kind of small details that make a character relatable.

And then there is the Taraporewala family — Delnaaz Irani, Anant V. Joshi and Amyra Dastur — whose mother-in-law, daughter-in-law and husband-in-the-middle dynamic adds another layer of chaos.

Put all of them together, and you get a colony where almost anything can happen.

The humour doesn't always announce itself.

What I enjoyed about Chumbak Netflix is that the humour isn't always predictable. Sometimes there is an obvious joke, but sometimes it is simply the situation that makes you laugh.

The underwear exchange programme is one example. It is absurd, but it also captures how easily people can believe something just because it is presented confidently enough. The pet shradh/sabha is another moment where the show goes completely over the top and makes you wonder how these characters even arrived at this situation.

There is humour in almost every episode, but the show isn't only dependent on punchlines. A character's reaction or the sheer ridiculousness of a situation can be enough.

That said, Chumbak isn't perfect. Some situations feel a little too exaggerated, the pacing sometimes feels longer than it needs to be, and a few scenes feel scattered when the show is trying to handle too many things at once. The middle portions can occasionally feel like a little too much.

Still, I never reached the point where I wanted to stop watching.

There is more happening beneath the comedy.

The divorce storyline involving Rajni and Kuku was something I found particularly interesting. It isn't the kind of storyline you immediately expect from an older couple in a comedy series, which makes it stand out.

It also gives their relationship something beyond just the jokes, without taking the show completely away from its chaotic colony setting.

After eight episodes, I wouldn't call Chumbak a perfect series, and I wouldn't simply label it a feel-good show either. For me, it is a good, relaxing watch — something you can put on, spend time with these bizarre characters and enjoy the madness.

And I think there is still more to come.

Only eight of the sixteen episodes of Chumbak Season 1 are out so far, and I am genuinely curious about where these characters go next. The show has already given us enough strange situations to make me want to see what the remaining episodes have in store.

Aatish Kapadia's name naturally brings expectations because of his earlier work, but Chumbak doesn't feel like it is simply trying to recreate Khichdi or Sarabhai vs Sarabhai. It has its own colony, its own characters, and its own kind of madness.

And honestly, after these first eight episodes, I'm not done with Chumbak Colony yet.

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