Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives S2 Review: More of a snoozefest than a guilty pleasure

There is a scene in Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives S2 where all the wives huddle and talk about all the businesses they attempted and failed at. Bhavana Pandey, wife of Chunky Panday and mother of Ananya Panday (Liger), tells about how she opened a restaurant called ‘Trim with Taste’ and when that failed she went for a joint called ‘Parathas’. After that came ‘La Chocolade’, which sounds like a dessert place, and finally when that went downhill she came up with a bar. Erstwhile actor Neelam Kothari shared how she found her calling in jewellery designing after her acting career faded out. Maheep Kapoor, wife of Sanjay Kapoor and mother of Shanaya Kapoor, speaks about her infant apparel line whose customers probably were only star kids. Bhavana sums it up: ‘Never give up’. I took a deep breath and clicked on the next episode.

Featuring: Maheep Kapoor, Neelam Kothari, Bhavana Pandey, Seema Sajdeh, Chunky Panday

Directed by: Uttam Domale

Streaming on: Netflix

Welcome to the hip lives of the Realwives of Juhu. There is glitz, there is glam and everything is a sham. This season feels even more scripted and manicured than the previous one. So much so that it feels like Maheep and Neelam have been asked to accentuate their accents. Don’t get me wrong, I am up for a cringe binge anytime, but where is some good old spilling of the beans? Some juicy detail which wasn’t supposed to be unveiled in front of the camera? Everytime Karan Johar made an appearance I got hopeful. But then Zoya Akhtar said it perfectly: “This is not Koffee with Karan.”

So what we are left with is a feeble attempt at showcasing the inner lives of the wives. Bhavana is thinking of renewing her vows with Chunky (which is kind of cute), Seema Sajdeh (recently divorced from Sohail Khan) is putting all her anger in designing skulls and bones on youth apparel,  Neelam is trying to shed her sati savitri image and Maheep can’t decide between calling her girl gang tw**s or a-holes. There is also an undercurrent between Maheep and Bhavana, and Seema and Neelam. But if you are expecting some old wounds to resurface, some she said-she said gossip, you are in for some disappointment. The resentments and fights are so generic and one note, it feels like they were written just for this show by an intern. The dynamics boil but never blast and make you think Bigg Boss was better (If you are into that, I am not).

Just like the previous season, husbands come to the rescue. Chunky Panday, after his experiments with a Tony Stark goatee, is now growing a white beard. “Don’t I look like Sean Connery?” he asks Bhavana. Sanjay Kapoor’s Punjabi witticisms are less this time but he still manages to take attention off Maheep (which is a task since she hogs it every chance she gets). The most real is yet again, Samir Soni. He is the ill-fit, introvert who would rather chase his dog inside the house rather than go for a party. It is endearing to see him enjoying being around people, till he starts promoting his book.

Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives at every step wants you to feel for the characters. So what if they are privileged, it’s not easy to be in the public eye all the time. It also serves as soft promotion for Shanaya Kapoor’s upcoming debut (Bedhadak), Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani and Rajasthan tourism. The wives are constantly pulling each other up and raising toasts to girl power but it gets dreary after a point. In a sequence, Seema sends a photo of the gang from a vacation to her son Nirvan. “You look like gareeb (poor) Kardashians,” he replies. Seema takes that as a compliment.