Sounds acquainted? Effectively, that is as a result of now we have seen the storyline tens of millions of instances throughout genres. Name Me Bae closely borrows parts from related works completed previously, together with Schitt’s Creek, 2 Broke Ladies, and Sonam Kapoor’s Aisha. It will remind you of Kareena Kapoor Khan’s fashion-conscious Poo from Sometimes happy, sometimes sad…or Legally Blonde’s sorority queen-turned-Harvard-educated-lawyer Reese Witherspoon on multiple event. That is the traditional trope of a seemingly air-headed woman who is predicted to not have brains however finally ends up being a genius.
Storyline
Panday’s character is disowned by her uber-rich household after she is caught dishonest on her husband
If I have been to provide it straight, Name Me Bae falls consistent with typical high-school teenage dramas, which run excessive on delusion and all the time have pleased endings. Keep in mind how Hannah Montana fooled everybody with only a wig and Selena Gomez’s magic world in Wizards of Waverly Place? The one distinction right here is that this Prime Video unique is ready in present instances, and in contrast to earlier works, it extensively incorporates the omnipresent world of social media – and, in fact, the next finances.
Name Me Bae begins with Ananya Panday’s uber-rich Bella “Bae” Chowdhary being thrown out of her Delhi mansion in drenching rain. Used to being flown in choppers, heading to Rome for a superb pizza, or gifting cricket groups to family members, she is now doomed. With none of her family and friends prepared to assist, it is simply her and her Gucci suitcases, crammed with tens of millions of {dollars} price of outfits and equipment, in opposition to the world now. Decided to show her destiny, our protagonist decides to rebuild her life from scratch in Mumbai. Throughout the subsequent seven episodes, we see her attempting to regulate to poverty and rewrite her life story. [Needless to say, she succeeds, sticking to the fairy tale format of the show!]
The princess-turned-pauper experiences loads of firsts: staying in a hostel, cleansing up after herself, consuming white bread, which she thought had gone extinct, and experiencing a roof leakage. She boards an auto-rickshaw for the primary time and goes on to label it as a breezier model of Mini Coopers: a comparability I’m going to feed my anxious mind each time month-to-month budgets lay low.
Even when she misses her earlier life and worries concerning the future, she provides her new life an sincere probability and stays optimistic. The perfect half? She does not ditch away her generosity, kindness, and religion in humanity. She’d offer you second probabilities, struggle to your friendship, and name a spade for a spade.
Name Me Bae is stuffed with witty popular culture references and bling
Bae’s character has been written to tug you from the slap-in-the-face actuality of the world and restore your religion within the little good left on the earth.
Though, if there have been a debate on the collection, loads of theorists may recommend that on some degree, Bae all the time knew her household would in the end have her again, and she or he is on her solution to take pleasure in pseudo-poverty, an idea the place the rich ditch their luxuries briefly to have a brand new expertise of how regular folks reside; for sheer leisure or a self-discovery facade. Effectively, for those who’re anticipating practicality in Karan Johar’s works, that is on you.
As all the time, Johar has added fairly a cinematic extravagance, and all the things is conveniently falling into place for our protagonist. However, the collection made me smile a number of instances. Typically, a reminder of how good issues can flip served with a aspect of hope is simply what we want, and Panday’s collection did it for me. From her behen code (the sister code that makes you prioritize your feminine buddies) to a easy acknowledgment of being a flawed human and but deserving good issues, these uplifting tropes felt reassuring.
Though had the present been even barely linked with actuality, issues would have gone horribly fallacious for our damsel. In a tanking financial state of affairs the place persons are sticking to their poisonous jobs due to a crashed market, Bae is getting a well-paid internship at a prestigious information channel. That too when her resume is only a compilation of eccentric programs like how you can talk along with your spirit animal, vegan psychic cheese and wine pairing, moral emerald jewelery design, cyberfeminism, how you can change the world one tweet at a time, underwater basket weaving – the listing goes on. If solely we may swap to this universe!
Ananya Panday’s Bae has completed loads of quirky programs within the present comparable to “how you can change the world one tweet at a time”
To attraction to the Instagram-addicted younger viewers, Name Me Bae floods the viewers with popular culture references that may not curiosity somebody not aware of them. However in case you are up to date with the most recent developments that catch the flowery of the youth, be up for an amusing stretch of streaming.
There are references to Jay-Z-Beyonce’s divorce, Jimmy Kimmel’s post-Oscars events, and even Fifty Shades of GreyPanday even quotes Joey Tribbinani’s fashionable dialogue from the American sitcom FRIENDS, A second in your lips, perpetually on the hipsMost likely, because of this Prime Video has particularly categorized the present for the “younger grownup viewers”.
Anyway. I used to be notably impressed by how the present skillfully captured the essence of social media in a playful and relatable approach, successfully conveying its pervasive presence in our lives. Every time a personality posts on-line, small emojis fly on our display screen, and their Google searches are proven with a particular pop-up, making the characters’ on-line experiences really feel intimately acquainted. The modifying right here is kind of spectacular. Panday’s Netflix movie, Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, which revolved extensively on the topic, had additionally excelled within the illustration.
Nonetheless, Name Me Bae is not nearly jaw-dropping trend selections, social media, and popular culture. It calmly touches upon delicate topics like loneliness and the affect of childhood neglect. Not an excellent job there, although. Whereas the ache of her beforehand golden-caged life resonates properly throughout the screens, the seriousness of the problem is criminally undermined. The lukewarm illustration shies away from the darkish points and fails to acknowledge it as a doubtlessly life-threatening concern.
We see the in any other case bubbly Bae teary and speaking to her purses – whom she has named – and hanging onto each alternative to speak to a different human, even when s/he’s a homeless legal in jail. She strives for the validation of strangers on the Web by posting even the tiniest updates of her life on-line. However that is all. And oh, by the way in which, she has completed loads of eccentric programs too: how you can talk along with your spirit animal, psychic vegan cheese and wine pairing, moral emerald jewelery design, how you can change the world one tweet at a time, underwater basket weaving – the listing goes on. Nonetheless, Johar’s collection refrains from protecting a lot darker points of loneliness, choosing a a lot lukewarm illustration of the intense concern.
Characters
As per Karan Johar, Ananya Panday’s Bae is the modern-day equal of Poo from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham
Though, the collection does take a severe dig at modern journalism, particularly tv journalism. The message is loud and clear: precise journalism is on the verge of extinction. We see gifted journalists not being allowed to take up precise tales of substance – just because they do not have a sensational angle to them. There’s a junior reporter dressing up as leopards and ghosts for a present as an alternative of doing one thing fruitful. What a metaphorical illustration of the circus that some information channels have decreased to as we speak! There may be even {a magazine} cowl with a blurb that reads, “What to put on once you’re caught dishonest”. Christ!
Slapstick comedian Vir Das shines right here as a narcissistic journalist who believes the nation is a “beast” desirous to feed on sensationalism. He would shamelessly disclose folks’s private lives on nationwide tv and enlarge irrelevant info in his stories so as to add the spice. For him Pakistan spells DRAMA and workplace apparel features a lux coat and a boxer. (Anyone, please remind him that the work-from-home days are over, and it isn’t a mid-day Zoom assembly.) His discuss exhibits low cost information tickers learn “Our fact is healthier than your fact” and “This concern wants a tissue”.
In a scene, he shouts, “Mujhe medication do” [give me drugs] whereas alleging a wrestler of being doped earlier than a match. Reminded of somebody? Effectively, now we have particular journalists who love harassing folks on their exhibits within the identify of a nation desirous to know. Should not be that onerous to guess. The satirical portrayal is on level.
Contrarily, Das has by no means been shy about voicing his opinion on the rotting political state of the nation and the horrendous position of unethical journalists fueling the decay, in actual life. He appears to have discovered the proper approach of channeling his frustration by way of Name Me Bae, particularly after he was banned beforehand from sure states in India for his supposed anti-nation sentiments in a Netflix Comedy Special for which he later gained an Emmy.
The collection additionally has a short cameo by unbiased journalist Faye Desouza, who’s seen giving heartfelt recommendation to severe journalists ditching tv in the event that they need to make an precise distinction. Dsouza, too, is thought for being brutally sincere concerning the barbaric decay of journalistic ethics, and her temporary stint within the present makes good sense.
Name Me Bae Evaluation: Verdict
Name Me Bae fares properly as a feel-good collection the place practicality is changed by fairy-tale model of life
Ananya Panday’s collection won’t break new floor or dive deep into complicated themes. In reality, it’s predictable, tacky, and overstuffed with plotholes that’ll make you sigh. Accepted. However that is precisely what makes it a enjoyable, senseless watch. Name Me Bae’s tone is overly enthusiastic, unrealistically optimistic, and completely dreamy, identical to its delusional protagonist. It is a present that you simply flip to once you need your mind cells to relaxation and feed on senseless comedy. Do not count on a cerebral or visceral expertise; Name Me Bae by no means promised to be one. We’ve got loads of these movies and exhibits already. Name Me Bae is a fantasy world the place all the things falls into place, and our protagonist finds overly supportive strangers who grow to be her finest buddies in a surprisingly quick span of time. It is a Karan Johar-esque romp, borrowing one of the best bits from his earlier works. Whereas it is no cinematic masterpiece, Name Me Bae has its distinctive beat. It is a quirky, delusional, and endearingly optimistic story that creates a bubble of its personal.
Ranking: 8/10
Discover more from Trending world updates
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.