Yes, I have binged watched this season and it is better than season 1 already! The season reprises the 4 women’s roles in cosmopolitan Mumbai and gives us insights into the hardship that WOMEN go through, throughout the world. You will be left in shock with the subtle misogyny and discrepancies that goes on in today's world.
Created by Rangita Pritish Mandy, written by Devika Bhagat and directed by Nupur Asthana. I could not be more thankful for these people creating such a show!
So, I should probably mention at this point, if you have not watched season 1 or season 2 then do not… DO NOT read this article because we are about to dive into details that are definitely considered spoilers.
So, let’s get straight into it.
We are left in Season one with the following events:
Damini (Sayani Gupta) gets fired from Investigator.com for pursuing more riveting and informational stories and finds out her love interest is otherwise taken.
Umang (BaniJ ) finds love with a famous actress and unfortunately, gets dumped by her due to unforeseen events. But she ends up coming out to her family in a sudden rage.
Anjana (Kirti Kulhari) has difficult accepting the newfound love of her ex-husband and she has a car crash whilst being scarred over her daughter’s health. Her ex-husband threatens to get full custody due to this unfortunate event.
Sidhi (Maavi Gagroo) find herself by broadcasting on a mediocre ‘love’ website and just as she thinks life if going well with an announced engagement, her fiances father makes her break it off.
And on top of this all, the four are intoxicated with their own problems that they insult and degrade each other in a massive argument.
Insane right. Whilst season 1 had established their characters personalities to us as the audience, season 2 captures the intense stories that women face, not only in India but everywhere around the world! We see several problems that I found most relatable which were;
Misogyny
Love and Pain
Friendship
Finding yourself
Misogyny
This comes across in so many ways throughout the start of the series, which Anjana must deal with. Her company comes with a new boss that not only takes the reigns away but also her energy. Ironically, not only does it happen to her, but it happens in a law institute, where we should be preventing these things.
Whilst, some of viewers find this distressing, it happens in the real world. Gender pay gap, non-consensual sex RAPE, not taken seriously and other stereotypes that cast us away in everyday life are just some examples of that women are not treated fairly in this world. Not including the FACT that women birth 100% of the worlds population, for us to be shitted on. Also, the rise in campaigns, like #metoo, to help women speak their truth and break from the stereotypes of women.
But finally, we are starting to get strong female characters in Bollywood that do not just represent a damsel in distress. Her is a women that is a single mother, she is divorced, hangs out with her friends and kicks ass at her work because A WOMEN CAN DO IT ALL! This is the kind of thing we are around every day so I commend the show for presenting it in this way.
What season 1 did not show about Mumbai, India, gender hardship, season 2 built on. The austerity of this situation is far worse than we think and seeing it in the full form on TV is an even greater way to spread the concern of the issue to resolve it.
Love and Pain
Too many love stories to keep up with in this series, just like real life.
Anjana with Varun (Neil Bhoopalam), Arjan (Ankur Rathee) and Shashank (Sameer Kochhar), just shows a female can still rock at an older age, no matter what they do. This just shows, Anjana is as beautiful and complicated just like most of us are. Whilst, her actions are not that great, she has an amazing heart.
We see Damini at the start with a ‘fling’ with Warsi (Milind Soman), the hot doctor which she leaves for the amazing Jeh (Prateik). We saw their relationship struggle in first season and now we see it tumble even more when she falls pregnant with Warsi’s baby. A SHOCKER – I know right! But just like anything, relationships have the most amazing supportive moments and the heartbreak, we need a break to figure things out moments.
Umang helps the love of her life Samara (Lisa Ray) throughout the whole series, whether she is broken like shattered glass or thriving through social media viral, shows her strength and courage. In this season, Umang is the one that everyone goes to for support, care and love but we subtly see this rage or intense vibration within her until she breaks in the last episode. She finally puts herself first and notices that love isn’t all just about Samara and the relationship they have is more broken than she thought.
Love isn’t just these four cases and love doesn’t always replenish like a seasoned flower but these girls are showing exactly how love isn’t easy and it is like a roller coaster no matter what you are doing or who you are seeing. But also, love doesn’t have to be a person.
Finding yourself
Anjana finds herself as a strong confident woman at the start of the series as she quits her job and basically quits her love life as well. She then makes some different and weird decisions that I don’t necessarily agree with but the love and passion for fighting for something or someone she believes in, is held throughout the whole series. Whether that being her own self-employed lawyer or deciding to be with a married man, she never stops trusting, caring and being headstrong. Again, neither I or the show, presents these ideas as the correct one but neither are half the decisions we make in real life. Mistakes are made and she seems to continually try to repair relationships like talking to Shashank’s wife, Sushmita (Shibani Dandekar). She may not say the same things, but her actions are true to heart.
Damini’s situation throughout the whole of season 1 is messed up as she fights with such power that she has to quit investigator.com and now she leads a new life with a book that involved difficult politics that make controversies with the public. Even with writers block, she magically writes a book very quickly (;/) and crushes anything that comes her way with determination. Apart from the relationship stuff. She tells us that sometimes the truth needs to come out, so why not tell the truth in the first place and that’s the principle and example she sets.
Sidhi finds a whole new meaning to her life with the things when she travels the worlds, has sex for her own pleasure and uses comedy to enlighten and reinforce her feminism. She seems like the surest of herself than she has ever been and its amazing to have the person that is head strong about herself. Because it emphasises that we can be no matter who we are.
Finding yourself means that you may stumble into something you may want to or even force yourself to do something you want. But its taking it at your speed and makes you feel comfortable about what you are doing.
Friendship
From the start, you see the girls laughing, having fun and catching up but there is a relaxed tension through the side eyes or snide comments. Yes, this is one thing I find weird as they quickly resolve it with apologies and cringe hugs. I guess that’s my only criticism because the rest of the show is how women should be supporting other women. Even Anjana admits after Shashunk’s relationship is revealed, that she ruined another marriage and didn’t support another women. I understand that we should all support all genders, races and disabilities but when one doesn’t balance the other, sometimes you need to stand behind that person to defend them. Anjana, didn’t do the right thing or didn’t listen to her friends but she got her karma. Sidhi learned her lesson about the internet and all the bullying she got when she grew up with, she made laughter and strength with it. Damini understood that life doesn’t always go on course with your dreams and fantasy so its okay to stand back and go crazy. Umang understands love probably than we all do, the determination to fight for a love even when you may be walking away from it. Somehow even after all these things, their friend (family) had their back, support and protect.
The most common theme that I specifically picked up throughout the whole show, was exactly what multiple people said at the end. Life is not black or white. Life is not happy or sad. Life is not perfect. And that is okay. People go through so many different things throughout their lives, just like these four girls did and that is bound to happen. We all don’t magically start to gain knowledge about the world and get our dreams, we fight for it, we obsess over it and we let the world take its natural course. Although, understanding the balance of their emotions and having people that support, whatever your decision is what life is about.
I am fortunate enough to say I have friends and family that both support me whether I like their opinions or not and whether they like my decisions or not. But I can say they were and are there. Sometimes, it’s the best things in life – the ones that are simply there.
This is exactly why the announcement of Season 3 is the best thing to hear right now.
