Dark comedies often explore the depths of human behaviour through laughter and thoughtfulness.

It would not be wrong to say that dark comedy is an interesting and intriguing genre, and it blends humour with serious unsettling subjects. Dark comedy content explores the complexity of morality, societal standards with a humorous undertone. In fact, there have been several such dark comedy shows made in India, and they all represent a segment of Indian entertainment that offers new forms of storytelling while making the audience laugh their way through hard truths.

So, here’s a look at six shows that not only explore the depths of human behaviour while evoking both laughter and thoughtfulness:

Afsos

Cast details: Gulshan Devaiah, Sulagna Panigrahi, Anjali Patil and Heeba Shah

 

The show follows the life of Nakul, who has attempted suicide multiple times. He then decides to pay for his own death, and hires an assassin named Upadhyay to carry out the task. However, Nakul ends up having a change of heart and decides to live. But now Upadhyay wants to complete the job given to him, which leads to a thrilling chase between the two. It premiered on Amazon Video on February 6, 2020.

Guns & Gulaabs

Cast details: Rajkummar Rao, Dulquer Salmaan, Adarsh Gourav, Goutam Sharma, Gourav Sharma, Sanchay Goswami and Gulshan Devaiah.

 

The show, which is set in the 1990s, features a stellar ensemble and is created by Raj and DK. The series, which takes place in the fictitious Gulaabgunj, revolves around an opium deal. Entangled in the deal are three people - a mechanic who struggles to emerge from his dead gangster father's shadow and wants to be with the love of his life, an honest officer who ends up creating chaos, and a reluctant cartel heir who has an identity crisis. It was released on August 18, 2023 on Netflix.

Hasmukh

Cast details: Vir Das, Ranvir Shorey, Inaamulhaq, Amrita Bagchi, Ravi Kishan, and Manoj Pahwa

 

Created by Nikkhil Advani, Vir Das, and Nikhil Gonsalves, the show is a dark comedy short series about a stand-up comedian who is also a serial killer. The story revolves around Hasmukh's journey and how he gets an adrenaline rush from committing murders in order to pump up his comedy performances. Hasmukh premiered on Netflix on April 17, 2020.

Black Widows

Cast details: Mona Singh, Swastika Mukherjee, Shamita Shetty, Sharad Kelkar, Mohan Kapur, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Vipul Roy, Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Aamir Ali and Raima Sen

 

The show follows the life of three women -- Veera, Jayati and Kavita – who are tired of their abusive husbands and hence, decide to murder them. The almost-perfect plan gets into jeopardy when Pankaj Mishra, assigned to the case, finds out that there is more to it. The series was released on ZEE5 on December 18, 2020.

A Simple Murder

Cast details: Amit Sial, Ayaz Khan, Zeeshan Ayyub, Priya Anand, Sushant Singh, Yashpal Sharma.

 

The show is about a struggling entrepreneur. However, his life becomes complicated when he is mistakenly identified, and also hired to assassinate a young girl, who is the politician’s daughter. The series premiered on November 20, 2020 on SonyLIV.

Sunflower

Cast details: Sunil Grover, Ranvir Shorey, Girish Kulkarni, Mukul Chadda, Shonali Nagrani, Sonal Jha and Ashish Vidyarthi

 

The series, which is set in a housing society named Sunflower, has a quirky group of residents living there but they all get embroiled in a murder investigation.