‘Shekhar Home’ review: A deft Conan Doyle adaptation

Shekhar Home, a six-part web series on JioCinema, takes inspiration from the literary works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This Hindi language reworking is set in Bengal in the early 1990s, a time before cell phones and the internet. The adaptation of Doyle’s stories (originally written in the late 1800s) by Srijit Mukherji and Aniruddha Guha skillfully integrates classic detective elements into an Indian context. This includes meshing original stories and characters, such as Holmes’s adversary Moriarty who menacingly looms all over the show, and Irene Adler, the woman who matches Holmes’ wit.

The ensemble cast is led by Kay Kay Menon as Home, who has an in-built lie detector and a sharp sense of deduction. Menon infuses the iconic detective with local flavour, including a wardrobe full of batik shirts and kurtas.

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Ranvir Shorey, as Dr. Jayvrat Sahni, a contemporary adaptation of Holmes’s traditional sidekick, delivers a notable performance sharing a playful repartee and partnership with Menon. The duo meets in the fictional town of Lonpur as paying guests of Mrs. H (Shernaz Patel), who runs a café and hotel called Khasha Blanca.

Rasika Dugal appears in episode three as Irabaty, a classical singer who sparks interest in an otherwise smug Shekhar Home who momentarily sheds his narcissism. Dugal has a strong presence and injects her character with the requisite measure of intrigue. This is one of the stronger and more well-rounded episodes in the series, buoyed by the ensemble of lead actors, including Kaushik Sen as Shekhar’s brother Mrinmay, based on Sherlock’s brother Mycroft.

When Shekhar finally trades in his batik wardrobe for conventional office wear and combed back hair, it’s time for a revelation.

Kirti Kulhari and Rudranil Ghosh are other recurring characters contributing to the narrative. Directed by Srijit Mukherji and Rohan Sippy (later episodes) the series falls prey to pacing issues, uninteresting action and occasionally over-dramatic performances. 

Vaibhav Vishal’s dialogues bring irreverence and energy to the visual vacuity. Rabindranath Tagore does find his way into the show set in Bengal and fans of Doyle’s stories will enjoy identifying the characters and original mysteries. Some of the adaptations are odd though, such as ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ becoming an episode called ‘Bhaskervilla’ in which the ferocious hound is replaced by an infamous headless ghost.

The leisurely pace, sometimes uninteresting cases and the simplistic problem-solving aside, the show works when it does because of Menon, Shorey, Dugal and Sen, characters who could easily see a comeback in another edition of Shekhar Home, since Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 56 stories about Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson and their crime-solving prowess.

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