Farah Khan for dummies

Back in 2007 when Farah Khan made Om Shanti Om, I had described the film as an award ceremony minus the awards: a series of in-jokes and celebrity-heavy sketches stitched around a reincarnation plot.

- RAJA SEN

Bobby Deol in 'The Ba***ds of Bollywood'.

Channelling entertainers like Manmohan Desai, Subhash Ghai and even Bimal Roy, Khan deftly and hilariously spun a reincarnation spoof that thanks to the blinding wattage of its leading man Shah Rukh Khan-worked even as a straight romance. The moment that title track plays? Goosebumps.

The new Netflix series The Ba***ds of Bollywood borrows a lot from Farah Khan's playbook, but lacks her storytelling finesse. Watching these seven uneven episodes is like sitting through a school play: it's not ideal by any standard, but you indulgently give it your time because you want to be there for your kid, hoot at the right moment, click a photograph to prove you were there. With this series directed and co-created by Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, many of us may initially be tuning into this show in parental proxy. In support of the ultimate outsider.

The Ba***ds Of Bollywood is an insider story about the film industry, about a rough-around-the-edges debutant actor from Delhi finding his footing in a cruel and shallow industry. If that sounds reminiscent of Shah Rukh, wait till the actor within the show raises a trophy to the skies the way SRK had done with his very first Filmfare award in 1992. "This one's for you, Ma," Khan had said about the mother he had lost, the one who could not see him start to rule the world.