‘Khalbali Records’ review: Show about indie musicians gets bogged down in family politics

Khalbali Records lives up to its title in its very first episode. A rapper dies, a new music label is born, there are flare-ups and meltdowns, a family implodes – everywhere you look, there is commotion.

Like the American TV show Empire, the JioCinema Hindi series frames its exploration of the music industry as a family fight. Idealistic talent manager Raghav (Skand Thakur) goes against his rapacious father Manavendra (Ram Kapoor) and his conflicted sister Ananya (Saloni Batra) to set up his own label, Khalbali Records.

Manavendra’s Galaxy Records has been built on the backs of exploitative contracts. The rot within Galaxy includes the downplaying of a sexual assault complaint by singer Monali (Sanghmitra Hitaishi).

Inspired by the principled rapper Mauj (Prabh Deep), Raghav attempts to create the music Utopia that Mauj had dreamed of. The obstacles include Mauj’s girlfriend Lekha (Salonie Patel), who is suspicious of Raghav’s sincerity, and the outlier Phantom (Varun Bhagat).

Khalbali Records has Devanshu Singh as showrunner and director. A bunch of writers and creators has developed a concept by Shalini Sethi and Prateek Arora. The pulsating soundtrack, by Amit Trivedi and Azadi Records, suggests that rap and hip-hop are more vibrant and thoughtful than whatever is in the mainstream.

Like a rap battle spilling over with...

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