The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh series review: Naveen Andrews-Sindhu Vee-led comedy about Indian immigrant family is middling

The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh series review: An Indian immigrant family facing possible deportation is at the centre of this 'comedy' series

Sindhu Vee, Naveen Andrews, Ashwin Shaktivel, Sahana Srinvisan and Arjun Sriram in The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh

The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh series story: The Pradeeps – a family of 5 from Ahmedahabad, India, including Mahesh Pradeep (Naveen Andrews), his wife Sudha (Sindhu Vee), kids Kamal (Arjun Sriram), Bhanu (Sahana Srinivasan) and Vinod (Ashwin Shaktivel)- move to Pittsburgh, after Mahesh secures a SpaceX contract. Their American dream, though, is at risk of being short-lived, as they find themselves prime suspects after their neighbours’ house is burnt to a crisp. What happened between the two families?

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The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh series review: A dysfunctional family of 5 from India being interrogated in a case of arson that could potentially lead to deportation is at the heart of the new comedy series The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh, which is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Across 8 episodes, each a tad under 30-minutes long, the Pradeeps and their neighbours, Jimbo and Janice, who lost their home, are questioned by immigration officials to get to the bottom of the conflict between the families.

It is during this interrogation that we learn of Mahesh failing to find funding to get his SpaceX programme and Sudha feeling like a bird with clipped wings when her license to practice medicine in the US is unduly delayed. Their kids fare a tad better – Bhanu takes to life in the US like a fish to water, as does Vinod, even though he gets bullied at school, and choses to handle it like Gandhi, with ahimsa. The oddball out is Kamal, who has a gazillion phobias and anxieties that only Sudha knows to handle (and medicate). But even he gets his act together after a rough start.

The central conflict of The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh is Bhanu’s growing closeness to Jimbo and Janice’s son, Stu. The hormonal teenager that she is, Bhanu wants to sleep with Stu, but she is also a romantic at heart, who wants her first-time to be memorable. Bhanu is written like the poor man’s version of Devi from Never Have I Ever. And Sindhu’s Sudha is no match to Poorna Jagannathan’s Dr Nalini. In fact, so poor is the writing that Sudha is reduced to plying a man with extreme eczema with pyramid-scheme vitamins. Agreed she can’t practice medicine, but wouldn’t the doctor in her scream at this suggestion? She does have a good dynamic with Naveen’s Mahesh, though – he’s the ying to her yang.

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The problem with The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh is that it has a largely dialogue-driven narrative, which can come across like an extension of a Sindhu Vee standup special - with a set-up followed by a punchline – albeit, a lot less funny. The lines are exaggerated and do not have many laugh-worthy moments. Sindhu carries the same body language and energy she would on her shows – well, her marriage, husband and kids are the subjects of her jokes most of the time – but is not given much to work with in the series.

If the idea of the show was to also show the struggles of an immigrant family in the US, The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh fails miserably at that. Terry Toyota speaks more Gujarati than the 5 Pradeeps put together – that’s how Indian this family is. Sudha’s occasional “Jai Sri Krishna” or “beta” utterance doesn’t really help the cause either.

The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh series verdict: The show’s biggest failing is that the central mystery – Who burnt the Mills’ home? – remains unanswered. That’s 8 episodes of balderdash with no resolution, probably in the hopes of securing a second season. The show leaves one with the feeling that it was all for nothing and that’s not good.

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