Cast: Rajesh Tailang, Sheeba Chadha, Tanya Sharma, Aditya Shukla, Ramesh Rai, Parvinder Jit Singh, Keshav Sadhna
Director: Ameet Guptha
Language: Hindi | Platform: ZEE5
Stars : 2.5
In a sea of glossy dramas and formulaic sitcoms, Bakaiti, now streaming on ZEE5, stands out not for reinventing the wheel, but for holding up a mirror to the everyday madness of the Indian middle class—warts, worries, water motors and all. Directed by Ameet Guptha, the seven-episode series is a slice-of-life dramedy that thrives in its imperfections, just like the family it follows.
Set in the bustling lanes of Ghaziabad, Bakaiti introduces us to the Katarias—an average middle-class family dealing with not-so-average chaos. Sanjay Kataria (Rajesh Tailang), the family’s overworked and underpaid lawyer, carries the burden of being the sole breadwinner. His wife, Sushma (Sheeba Chadha), manages the household with quiet resilience, one hand on a forgotten sewing machine and the other on an ever-boiling pot in the kitchen.
Their teenage kids, Naina (Tanya Sharma) and Bharat (Aditya Shukla), are classic opposites who can’t stand the sight of each other, yet are forced into the same room when the family decides to rent one out for extra income. Enter Chirag (Keshav Sadhna), the new tenant with a charming face and hidden baggage. What follows is a series of loud arguments, subtle heartbreaks, and the kind of emotional entanglements that only a middle-class Indian family can pull off with such intensity.
At its core, Bakaiti is about dreams deferred—not due to lack of ambition, but because of circumstances that clip wings before they can fly. The writing, by Gunjan Saxena, Neha Pawar, and Sheetal Kapoor, often dips into predictable territory but compensates with grounded realism. The constant sibling banter might test your patience at times, but it also feels oddly familiar—annoying, yet comforting.
Sheeba Chadha is the emotional anchor of the show, delivering a performance full of suppressed frustration and maternal warmth. Rajesh Tailang, as always, brings gravitas, portraying a man worn down by life but still standing tall. Tanya Sharma and Aditya Shukla are revelations. Their transformation from bratty teenagers to emotionally aware young adults gives the show its most poignant moments.
The water motor alarm—a running gag in the series—serves as an oddly poetic metaphor for the family’s life: urgent, repetitive, and largely ignored until it becomes a crisis.
Where Bakaiti stumbles is in its structure. The narrative loops too often, especially in the earlier episodes, with arguments that feel like reruns. The humor, at times, leans more towards shrill than sharp. While the show’s intention is to highlight the dysfunction within love, it occasionally forgets that yelling isn’t a substitute for storytelling.
The subplot involving Chirag’s mysterious past also feels undercooked, and its resolution lacks the emotional punch the rest of the series manages to build.
Ultimately, Bakaiti doesn’t offer grand solutions or cathartic revelations. Instead, it normalizes financial strain, broken dreams, and generational clashes. It’s not the flashiest show on the platform, but it’s one of the few that speaks honestly about the burden of balancing tradition, ambition, and survival in today’s India.
For viewers who’ve grown up juggling between tuition fees and utility bills, between dream colleges and family responsibilities, Bakaiti will feel less like fiction and more like a familiar memory.
Bakaiti may not be perfect, but it’s refreshingly honest. Loud, flawed, and sometimes exasperating—just like the families we all come from.