When I first saw the trailer of Ananya Panday’s Call Me Bae, I had some mixed feelings as an ardent chick flick lover. But, as they say, don’t judge a book by its cover; this series will slowly start to grow on you, or you can say you will find yourself joining Bae’s gram fam. The latest Prime Video release is helmed by director Colin D’Cunha, produced by Dharmatic Entertainment, and written by Ishita Moitra and Samina Motlekar, along with Rohit Nai.
Hello Bae
Call Me Bae takes us on a ride with Bella, aka Bae (played by Ananya Panday), a woman born with a golden spoon into privilege. Her story starts from the eye-blinding blingy Rajouri Gardens of New Delhi to the breezy streets of aamchi Bombae.
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Bae’s life was always Instagram perfect; Miss Ma’am had it all, from a fairy-tale wedding with business tycoon Agastya Chowdhary (Vihaan Samat) to personal choppers and a huge wardrobe flowing with couture pieces. From childhood, her mother had always trained her to be the perfect trophy wife in society and help to maintain the family’s image. She starts her day with every affirmation that rhymes with her name and consists of a mix of every Gen Z slang.
Her Struggles
But things go down the drain when her husband slowly starts distancing himself from her and turns ignorant towards her feelings like a douchebag. All this loneliness, daily fights, and insults push Bae to start an affair with her trainer, Prince (Varun Sood), which later gets embarrassingly exposed in front of everyone. Later in the first episode, her husband kicks her out, but her bad luck doesn’t end there; the lady also gets disowned by her own family and shunned in high-class society.
And by shunned, we mean getting removed from all the posh WhatsApp groups and clubs. This is where the show’s riches-to-rags plotline kickstarts. Now, the biggest question is: how will Bae survive in the city of dreams as a middle-class girl when she has never even washed a cup in her life? How will she manage her money and identity crisis.
Welcome to Bombae
In case I haven’t mentioned earlier, Bae is not like your rich mean girls; she has a kind heart and looks after her employees. Moving on, she forms a friend group that is supportive and quite entertaining. Bae’s next struggle is to find a job and a house with her multiple short-term course qualifications, which include social media journalism and cocktail making. If things are looking unrealistic to you so far, hold on because this is just the beginning. Later, Miss Bae landed a job in one of the country’s top media houses with non-competitive coworkers only because her video went viral.
In coming episodes, she finds a man who is actually interesting, aka Neel (Gurfateh Pirzada), and sees beyond the glam and the bimbo stereotype. The media house where she starts working has a prime-time show hosted by Satyajit Sen (Vir Das), who is a TRP-hungry journalist, for whom story and numbers come before morality.
As she starts working on some important stories, the show starts feeling like a love child of Emily in Paris, Aisha, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Two Broke Girls, or Schitt’s Creek, served on a fancy platter, with a little bit of an Indian context. The plot takes over Bae’s eccentric personality to catch her, embrace her privilege, feel its lack, and use it for what little good it can accomplish.
Performances and Verdict
While this is all about the plot of Call Me Bae, coming to the performances, Ananya Pandey shines and surely does full justice to the character. Funnily, you might catch a lot of similarities between her and Bae, as both of them are fun, quirky, a little campy, and stylish. Others who will catch your eyes are her friends played by Niharika Dutt and Muskkaan Jaferi; their trio is super endearing to watch, making a case for a fun female friendship showcase. Behen code.
Vir Das is an absolute entertainer, even when his character will make you peel his eyes. Additionally, Lisa Mishra also made her acting debut in the series with a sincere performance. Varun Sood and Gurfateh Pirzada have a hint of innocence in them, which we would love to see more of as we have had enough of overly dramatic and alpha male characters.
There are tonnes of moments that feel lousy, super clichéd, which would give some second-hand embarrassment making you think ‘Why are you doing this, girl?’ But at the end of the day, you can’t expect life lessons from a show titled Call Me Bae, so enjoy it for its light-hearted characters and dramatic plot, especially when Bollywood has a low share of good chick flicks.
Also, read: 11 New Shows & Films To Binge-Watch On OTT Platforms This September
