Amazon Prime’s newly released 10-part web-series is all about four girls who gang up together in the city of Mumbai and share their personal experiences of life visiting a bar every day for a few drinks. Putting it rightly, boozing is what actually connects them all in both good and sad times and you see them constantly drinking following it as a ritual in their life becoming the major part of the series throughout.
So here we have a single mother who is a successful lawyer (Kirti Kulhari), a known investigative journalist struggling in her own self-founded firm (Sayani Gupta), a little plump, rich lonely girl (Maanvi Gagroo), who is in conflict with her dominating mother (played by Simone Singh) and a fitness trainer/bisexual bold girl from Ludhiana (Bani), who accidentally begins her affair with a leading Bollywood actress (Lisa Ray). The ladies enact well along with Prateik Babbar (as the bar owner/bartender), Milind Soman as the doctor and Neil Bhoopaplam (as Kirti’s former husband) and the show has everything going in its favour as far as technical finesses, glamour, costumes, cinematography, editing and performances are concerned including the soundtrack.
But then what’s missing?
Missing is the depth in its writing (in the character development in particular) with everything remaining on the surface (excessively focusing on sex) without any touching emotional feel. And missing is anything fresh in the name of content as we don’t get to see something novel that hasn’t been tried before or is completely unpredictable. Moreover there is no center point or connecting point of the tediously long screenplay too with the series just ending as it had started giving you the glimpses of their lives and that’s it.
In other words, here we yet again witness everything similar to what we have already seen in films like ANGRY INDIAN GODDESSES, PARCHED, VEERE DI WEDDING and more in the same genre. Plus this time the writer and director also cross the limits getting obscene in their expressions (language/words used) and visuals, just because there is no censor to oppose, taking undue and unrequired advantage of the internet freedom.
In short it’s a mishmash kind of shallow project taking its obvious inspiration from the western series like SEX AND THE CITY, FRIENDS or more. And thus raises the big question, that why not go for unexplored, brave, bold and novel subjects in the web-series medium, when you have no restrictions of exhibitor-mafia or the interfering censor to tackle with?
What’s the use of wasting 10 episodes of a web-series on the same seen before subjects and content missing the novelty factor?
Strangely filmmakers all over the world are experimenting with new plots, exploring fresh, virgin ideas in their online series winning over the eager viewers….. but here we are weirdly making most of the web series on the same repetitive subjects, with silly over obsession of sex and nudity, ruining a big creative as well as commercial opportunity given.
So you can either skip this completely or just try a few episodes pressing the fast forward mode at times to see whether you wish to see it or not.
Rating : 2 / 5
