Call Me Bae Series Review: Ananya Panday’s web-show debut is all over the place

Created by Ishita Moitra, Call Me Bae is Prime Video’s latest offering of ‘women telling women stories’ after Nitya Mehra’s Big Girls Don’t Cry, Debbie Rao’s Dil Dosti Dilemma, and Tahira Kashyap Khurrana’s Sharmajee Ki Beti, which all released on the platform earlier this year. All of these stories explore the experience of being a woman in India as they try to unearth patriarchy and smash it away with cinematic liberty. There’s a strong intent and effort to understand everyday struggles of women through protagonists who come to realise their worth by going on unexpected journeys. Yet, what all of them lack is the means to weave unforgettable scenes that really dismantle fictional layering and speak to you in a deeper sense. Each of these characters, be it Asmara (Anushka Sen) in Dil Dosti… or Kiran Sharma (Divya Dutta) in Sharmaajee Ki Beti, feels more like a subject who has been burdened with a host of ideas. So much so that their presence feels less organic and more orchestrated to serve what the story wants to say. Ananya Panday’s Bella Chowdhurry, aka Bae, is no different.

Director: Collin D’Cunha

Cast: Ananya Panday, Anushka Sen, Divya Dutta, Vir Das, Mini Mathur, Vihaan Samat

Streamer: Prime Video

She is introduced as someone who is born with a ‘golden spoon’ in a rich family, where her elder brother is given more attention as he will be the ‘true heir’. Bae’s life has been guided largely by the insecurities of her mother, Gayatri (Mini Mathur), who pushes her to fall in love with Agastya (Vihaan Samat) and get married eventually, without caring much about her own dreams. Now, two years later, she is stuck in an unhappy marriage and doesn’t know what more to do with her posh, decorated life. It gets difficult to connect with her in these portions as all of it is told rather quickly, making it difficult to really feel her emotions. Moreover, as if to establish that she is not as entitled as others in her family, we are shown how ‘giving’ she is in a series of awkward sequences where she pays the fine of another ‘poor’ man who is arrested by the cops when she has none left to pay for hers. Or in another extended scene where several concierges in a hotel come up to help her as she has done great things for them. All of this feels like a simplistic exercise to build empathy for her which ultimately adds little to her emotional graph because of how sheepishly it unfolds.

The opening episodes give an outline of her life and how it is ruined when she cheats on her husband, leading to her public humiliation and eventual disowning by her family. Then begins another portion where she develops a passion for journalism after her drunk video of roasting a loud TV anchor, played by Vir Das, goes viral. Following this, an actress sends her a confessional video where she accuses an influential businessman of sexually harassing her. Through all of this, it is difficult to ascertain what exactly is the show about. Is it a Wake Up Sid-like narrative where Bae finds a purpose to her life? Is it a whistleblower kind of story where she will reveal the perpetrators and save the day? Is it a light-hearted romance or a complex, mature take on modern relationships? Towards the end, it becomes completely scattered and Bae’s victories stop mattering as much.

Ananya picks up a high-pitched demeanour as she navigates the flowery facades of Bae. At times, she carries the innocent zeal of Amelie (Audrey Tautou) from the 2001 French romantic-comedy of the same name, while on other occasions she becomes like the talkative Geet (Kareena Kapoor Khan) from Jab We Met (2009). Yet, it is not as charming to make us root for her throughout the outlandish experiences. Vir Das gets a sketchy character, but he plays it without getting into the tonal exaggerations. Muskkan Jaferi stands out as Bae’s best friend, Saira Ali, with her playful one-liners and amusing expressions. Vihaan Samat as Bae’s husband tries to be authentic on his part but has little space to spread his arms in an almost one-note screenplay.

Call Me Bae marks Dharmatic Entertainment’s third collaboration with Prime Video this year, after the historical-drama Ae Watan Mere Watan and the docu-series Love Storiyaan. The latter contained an episode which was directed by Collin D’Cunha, who has helmed Call Me Bae in his fiction debut. While his episode in Love Storiyaan had some stillness in its creation, here it disappears largely. There is a certain rapidness in the way it is edited that doesn’t let us stay with a feeling for long. Within a blink, characters enter the next scene and in no time, it is already shifting locations. While it can be thought of as a reflection of Bae’s excitement and her randomness, it doesn’t actually lend the right flavour to the show. Ultimately, under the gleamy layers, it remains cornered by its own generic dullness.