Do you recollect when the Diwali firecracker that you proudly show off to your neighbours fizzles out and does not burst at all ? As you kick the cracker remains away and curse the vendor, it is almost as if the lack of the sizzle and explosion far outweighs the fifty rupees you paid for it. The snigger of the neighbours adds insult to the injury! You look at #SwaraBhasker, a runaway bride and a comic who wants to do stand-up and you say wow to what looks like an interesting proposition. Let's leave the spoilers there!
ASHOK’s FIVE reviews #BhaagBeanieBhaag that has dropped on #NetflixIndia on December 4, 2020. As you settle down for what seems like a novel premise, the comparisons to #TheMarvellousMrsMaisel (you can read my review here https://www.ashoksfive.com/post/the-marvelous-mrs-maisel-a-theatrical-spectacle-beyond-compare) are inevitable. It is a veritable #SwaraBhasker show as her eyes express laughter, sorrow, ambition, desire and vulnerability through the show. She puts in a brilliant performance but you are left wondering if she is getting her selection of roles all wrong. Remember #Rasbhari ( https://www.ashoksfive.com/post/rasbhari-swara-bhaskar-cannot-save-this-bold-experiment-that-goes-awry)
#Swara plays Bindiya ‘Beanie’ Bhatnagar who runs away from her roka ceremony bridal attire et al to pursue her passion of stand-up comedy, leaving her beau-to-be Arun Kalra (#VarunThakur in a commendable performance) wondering what happened. She has her BFF (played by #DollySingh) for support and along the way runs into a firang import from LA Ravi ( #RaviPatel) with whom she strikes up an easy camaraderie. Meanwhile, her parents ( #MonaAmbegaonkar and #GirishKulkarni ) go through a rollercoaster of anguish, delight, pride, disgust and reconciliation that is often over-the-top. The parts where they go in for therapy leave you hoping that the remote could do an auto-forward based on some Artificial Intelligence algorithm!
#MonaAmbegaonkar is almost unrecognisable and a far cry from her serial days. Here, she is a curious mix of saccharine and high pitched shrieking that leaves you begging for mercy. I wish that the writing for the couple has measured up to some of the smart lines in place for some of the other characters! She does come up with one line which i quite liked when she blurts out “Govinda se to ek minute mein shaadi kar leti”
Something about the show quickly tells you that the producers are out of sync with the reality of contemporary India. And I dug around to find that the show is indeed produced by #District & Mutant production with #RaviPatel and #NeelShah. The NRI world view helmed by #RaviPatel’s character is quite likeable even as he is disarmingly honest and awkward but the manner in which #Beanie’s issues find easy resolution seem too contrived!
#BhaagBeanieBhaag with just six short episodes is for sure a breezy one-evening watch but has its misses that stick out. The plot is a big let down, there is a surfeit of saccharine at the end and the resolution at the end is just too convenient. I am not sure what some of our big names in stand-up like #KaneezSurka and #RahulSubramaniam are doing in the show for one. And I found the attempts to showcase the class divide between Arun and Beanie’s parents too pretentious. But the biggest question is how did the lines for the stand-up comedy fall so flat and how did they let that go through?? I watched the show for #SwaraBhakser but came back racking my brains trying to figure out what happened to the humour!!
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