'Tribhuvan Mishra: CA Topper' movie review: An aam aadmi's tryst with sex work

How far will the aam aadmi go for the sake of honesty? Will he remain upright when he faces the greatest of temptations in the direst of circumstances?

Noida’s Saral Jeevan Housing Society resident Tribhuvan Mishra is a ‘saral-susheel’ mid-level government employee who refuses all ‘under-the-table’ dealings. Nicknamed ‘chugad’ (dimwit) for doing so by his too-clever-by-half ‘saala’ (brother-in-law), he faces the aforementioned not-so-existential questions at a crucial juncture in his life. How he goes about answering them forms the crux of Netflix’s new crime caper directed by Mirzapur-fame Puneet Krishna.

Don’t judge the series by its mouthful title — focus on the shocking pink font used for ‘CA Topper’ and you begin to get an idea about what our Mishraji (played superbly by Manav Kaul) sets out to be. A chance remark by his wife that he is a ‘jaadugar’ (magician) in bed launches him on a journey as a male sex worker who ‘understands’ women and also provides emotional succour. After some great sex, of course! All this for ‘upari kamayi’ (added income). But then, he crashes headlong into a parallel story of a halwai (Shubhrajyoti Barat) who hides dripping ruthlessness behind his jalebi-making skills, his gang of wonky scruples-minus thugs who have one too many guns and his forty-ish wife (Tillotama Shome) who is severely romance and sex-deprived. Also in the mix is the ever-dependable Faisal Malik playing a samosa-crunching pot-bellied policeman. Yes, all hell eventually breaks loose and the ending is predictably chaotic. 

This is mostly a fun ride though, lurid in its aesthetic and deliberately so, ribald in its jokes, but it does feel overstretched. The screenplay sags now and then, and by the sixth episode, the jokes fall flat. Some merciless editing to restrict this to five episodes would have elevated it to a great series from a competent one.