You cannot unsee it and you most definitely cannot ignore it!
Netflix India recently released Season 2 of the Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives. The show gives the audience a sneak peek into the lives of B-town celebs and their ‘classy’ wives. With Maheep Kapoor, Seema Sajdeh, Bhavana Pandey, and Neelam Kothari featuring in the lead roles again, the show goes a bit deeper into their lives and friendship. And their ‘struggles’.
In the first season, Shah Rukh Khan’s wife had a limited appearance on the show. In the second season, Gauri gets enough screen time for the audience to understand her better. Right from how she’s a ‘passionate professional’ to how she was the ‘only earning member at home’ during the pandemic, it’s a revelation galore. For all the wrong reasons. And Gauri’s part is perhaps the most tolerable in the entire season.
The fab 4 have been compared to the Kardashians, and there’s no denial of the fact that these star wives in question have been living in a bubble. One that we’re almost triggered to break. The kind of ‘problems’ will make you roll your eyes a lot more than you’d imagined. Here are some cringey gems from the show:
In one episode, Maheep brings forth ‘an opportunity of a lifetime’ for her fab pals. The four ladies are apparently approached for a menopause pill endorsement ad. Aside from being in an absurd denial of their age, they fuss around about unbelievably trivial things. To begin with, Kothari says that she will not say the word vagina on screen, and cites how using the word signified a simple lack of izzat. As an actress and a public figure, Kothari shying away from a sexual health conversation is both weird and insensitive.
Seema went into a state of shock when she learned that they’d need to attend Gauri Khan’s furniture launch and shoot in a week. The ex-wife of Sohail Khan laments how there’s no time to figure out what to wear and lose weight’ in order to fit into something nice. Soon after, she flees to undergo a vampire facial, while Kothari gets a quick Botox, followed by Kapoor whizzing off to a salon and Pandey resorting to face yoga. A total of 7 days is apparently too short a notice for these privileged women to get ready for a shoot. A shoot.
Did the star wives just lose the plot entirely. As ‘Bollywood’ wives, how is it even possible to struggle with hindi? The accent– evidently fake– mirrors their superfluous way of being. Moreover, Maheep goes the extra mile here because apparently, she cannot ‘even understand Hindi properly’. Neelam who once acted in popular Bollywood films in the 90s now speaks accented Hindi which is so OTT, tbh.
There comes a point in the show where one realizes that it’s not only the wives but the men on the show who ramble absolute shit. Sanjay Kapoor, at his breakfast table, while eating an avocado toast made by a chef, quips how only rich people can get divorced. And poor people (hinting at himself and his wife Maheep) cannot afford it and he is poor. What even?
Seema plans a holiday for her gang of girls, and they speed off to the iconic Jawai resort in Rajasthan. In spite of being aware of being in the wild and they freak out seeing um, wild animals in their natural habitat. Just as Seema and Neelam spot a reptile, they begin to scream and chant mantras. The guide Jaisal Singh remains as puzzled as the audience all through.
In the last season, Kothari is seen asking every second person what they think about her making a comeback to the cinema. This season, she’s seen getting ‘projects’ and making an obvious deal out of it. Kothari is offered a gig by Zoya Akhtar, but it comes with a condition to kiss someone– something that appears to be out of her comfort zone. She discusses it with her husband Samir Soni who approves of it and then she quips how she would have anyway done it. Soon after, Kothari starts stressing over how would she’d kiss someone and tries to forcibly kiss Soni, as a form of practise. She even goes to an intimacy coach. Well… odd.odd.odd.
Lead Image: Netflix India