Gullak Season 3 Review: Everytime Mishras announce their homecoming, we get really excited. Gullak is one of the best written shows on the Web. TVF's this slice of life series is our comfort show. It's everything we go through as a middle class family and how we face the oddities of our reality. This is the third time they returned on SonyLIV. However, the third season controls the light-hearted way of dealing with issues and that's because life happened! Gullak Season 3 Trailer Out! Jameel Khan’s Family Drama to Stream On SonyLIV from April 7 (Watch Video).

Mishras are busy with their lives. Aman (Harsh Mayar) topped his boards and that's posing a bit of an issue to find a new institution for him for higher studies. The usual Science Vs Arts tension ensues. Eldest son Annu (Vaibhav Raj Gupta) who failed to live up to his parents' dream in the last season, is now an MR and is earning well. Their parents Santosh (Jameel Khan) and Shanti (Geetanjali Kulkarni) are trying to save money for Aman's education when an unfortunate incident makes things difficult for the Mishras.

Gullak's biggest win is its writing by Durgesh Singh. It always had a simple and sincere storytelling approach. It never exaggerates any incident to gain extra mileage. In fact, it doesn't even use loud background music to heighten emotions. Rather it pays attention to the plots, subplots and character arcs. That's a fact even in the third season. It's amazing how Singh manages to maintain the the tonality across three seasons.

The puns are gems that should be preserved. In fact, we feel the makers of Gullak should release a coffee table book on that. Just so that you get why we are saying so picture this - an irritated Annu asks, "Kitne dur ke rishtedar hai?" when he gives his room to a visiting relative. Aman in his typical deadpan voice retorts, "125 kms." The beauty of this scene is nobody laughs here because it's supposed to be amusing only for the audience. For them, it's a regular pun of the day. Gullak is thus a superior series where it draws an audience to its material without being blatant about it.

And guess what? The narrator doesn't repeat the catchphrase again and again like the previous season. We choose to believe the makers read our review of Gullak's second season. Gullak 2 Review: The Bickering Mishra Family Returns With More Middle-Class Issues In This Endearing And Heartwarming Web Series (LatestLY Exclusive).

We won't call it flaws but it's more about the things we missed the most in this season which made the earlier ones distinctly memorable. Annu is so busy adulting that his gossip sessions have reduced to just one at the start. Bitto ki mummy played by Sunita Rajwar is more of a filler than a great character inclusion here. Her nosy nature was one of the best things about the second season. The wisecracks are there but they are hard to come by this time. That makes you realise how even on-screen, when life humours you, there's no laugh left in you to ROFL. Only person who keeps the jokes uninterrupted is Aman with his lackluster way of delivering them.

Why this bothers us is because Gullak has always been a show that highlighted the day-to-day issues of our life and yet taught us to see humour in them. We couldn't feel it this time!

Watch Gullak season 3 trailer here

Performances continue to be the highlight. We would like to say it again that the actors who play the central roles here have transformed into those characters. Jameel Khan is outstanding in comedy scenes, in sneaky romantic moments, both heartfelt and strict as a father. Geetanjali embodies the role of a mother in a middle-class household so well that it's unbelievable. All of us will find traces of our moms in her. Vaibhav Raj Gupta's character undergoes a change, he is a responsible adult and an earning member now. He does complete justice to the role of the eldest son who wants to have fun with his first salary but his family issues force him to grow up immediately. Harsh Mayar is simply fantastic with his puns, perfect timing, perfect expression and a perfect performance. What shines brighter is their bond as a family...so aspirational.

Yay!

-simple and sincere writing

-stupendous performances

-great puns

Nay!

-a sudden turn towards serious life

-Missing the series favourites

Final Thoughts

Gullak season 3 continues to heartwarmingly mirror the vagaries of life especially if you are from the middle-class but this time, life overshadows humour... and that is not a good look on the TVF series. Gullak streams on SonLIV.

Rating:3.0

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 07, 2022 12:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).