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There is an utter pretentiousness to this world and the supposed hip lives of its characters which makes it plain awkward to watch, complains Mayur Sanap.
I don't know how it happened, but we are in the third season of Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives.
This is the kind of show that would irk you even if you watch it from the lens of brain-dead comedy. And for better or worse, looks like the show has no qualms about it.
Because how else would explain its gleeful excessiveness that just keeps on swelling with each season!
The latest one is called Fabulous Lives vs Bollywood Wives and the slight tweak in its title gives emphasis to the petty showdown between the original foursome Maheep Kapoor, Seema Sajdeh, Neelam Kothari, Bhavana Pandey and the new entrants Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, Shalini Passi and Kalyani Saha Chawla.
So, what do they fight each other for?
It is the classic Mumbai versus Delhi slanging match with both groups vying for the title of the most fabulous. Forget fabulous, the show keeps getting more and more outrageous with each passing minute.
For starters, the drama in this season quickly goes off the rails due to overtly scripted quality to it. All their interactions, snarky comments, revelations, cutesy moments feel painstakingly engineered with barely any room for organic exchange.
Take this for instance, when a character from Delhi's elite circle slyly comments on Mumbai's fashion sense, the only thing that person finds impressive is Neelam's neckpiece, which you know is the soft promotion for her jewellery line.
In another example, when the ladies go out on their shopping spree, the high-end shop they visit is, of course, Manish Malhotra's. The camera then quickly moves around his swanky Delhi outlet showing us snapshots of his latest jewellery collection. While the brand integrations are always jarring to watch, this shows makes it look all the more cheesy.
The problem is not the campy content, but the treatment of the material here.
There is an utter pretentiousness to this world and the supposed hip lives of its characters, which makes it plain awkward to watch.
At least, Dharma's previous show Call Me Bae had some fun with the same idea.
Like the previous two seasons, this one is also big on calculated cameos.
Ranbir Kapoor appears in the opening scene for a brief few minutes as he speaks fondly about his elder sister Riddhima.
She calls Ranbir 'Rans' and says she is floored with his sweet words. And then Ranbir humorously declares, "Riddhima is going to be a mess!"
True for her and for the show as well.
(This review is based on the first episode of the show. More incoming.)
Fabulous Lives vs Bollywood Wives streams on Netflix.
