Finally an experiment that is bold and different. A couple who are on the verge of divorce and are planning a separation party. A best-selling author of pulp fiction and with a snarky attitude and a hotshot finance professional funding start-ups. A guru who doles out expert advice on women and sexuality. A friend who wishes to make a film. #ChetanBhagat playing himself as the rival author. A satire on everything around us. And yet the show sinks under its own weight as the humour is off-putting and over-the-top. Writing that works best on paper and not as dialogues. #Decoupled on #Netflix, created by #ManuJoseph (#SeriousMen) and directed by #HardikMehta (#Kamyab, #Roohi). A pity that this one could not be salvaged.
Arya Iyer (#RMadhavan) and Shruti (#SurveenChawla) are staring at a failing marriage . In some ways, they remain under the same roof only for the sake of their daughter Rohini (#AristaMehta). Arya is downright obnoxious and has a sexist point of view on everything around him. At the airport, he has a public meltdown about the pointlessness of the security check and the scrap with the security personnel leaves him on the no-fly list! Meanwhile, Shruti is considering an affair with her Korean business partner but struggling to establish the unwritten rules for her and Arya. Rohini dotes on her father and calls Shruti the ‘Taliban’!
Unfortunately, the focus is not the novel concept . It is almost as if the jokes are pre decided. The context and sensibility do not matter. The humour is sexist, classit, racist, abusive, manipulative and crass at times. No one is spared, whether it is the NDTV types, or the #MeToo claimants. The repeated digs at #Parasite and the class divide and the muddled satire do not travel far. The show opens with Arya and Shruti fighting as to who will tell their driver about his body odour. At the airport, Arya picks a fight with the security forces and is promptly castigated by fellow travelers for being unpatriotic. At the art exhibition put up by their political economist fried Professor Basu ( #MirAfsarAli), Arya instigates his driver to go and eat the banana that is pinned to the wall as representative of the downtrodden in contrast to the avocado that is symbolic of the ‘haves’. Arya also refuses to shake hands with Prof Basu’s teenage son, citing the fact that the hand may have been used for ‘dubious indulgences’ and not washed thereafter.
#RMadhavan and #SurveenChawla are the surprise packages of the show. The last time we saw them was in #Breathe and #Parched respectively. The show has original dialogues in English and both put in a power-packed performance. I was pleasantly surprised to find #MirAfsarAli playing the political economist, Basu, and although the character is not fleshed out fully , he does make his impact. “Your book club treats male members as second-class citizens, even though they are feminists”. There is of course an entire thesis on the psychology of attitude towards house-maids and how the better looking ones are rejected.
#AtulKumar plays Guru Agni, the obnoxious yoga guru. He reveals how he uses a creepy app to track women’s menstrual cycles. In another scene, Arya makes fun of the last from #Netflix and how she refuses to use public toilets. You get the feeling that the writers will go to any extent to get a laugh!
#Aseem Hattangadi plays filmmaker Mayank who is desperate to make a film with Arya and Agni. #SoniaRather as Masha the air hostess and #MukeshBhatt as the driver carry off their roles well. Acting honours also go to the couple playing Shruti’s Punjabi parents #AkashKhurana and #AparaMehta.
If your sensibilities are not easily offended by the not-so-subtle jokes, #Decoupled is worth a watch, at least for the boldness of the experiment. Besides the top-notch performances from the entire cast, the production design by #SheetalDuggal deserves special mention for the stand-out images of the up-market residential societies of Gurgaon. Cinematography by #PiyushPuty also stands out. The background score by #RachitaArora and editing by #ParikshitJha could defintley have been better. The dialogues are often bookish and not really conducive to a series but i just wish that more thought had gone into the humour and the writing.
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