There are movies that run on intensive analysis and make you introspect, after which there are others that do not have an oz. of practicality and make it to the viewers’s responsible pleasure watchlist. Prime Video’s newest unique collection, Name Me Bae, falls into the latter class. It’s basically the story of an uber-rich Bella “Bae” Chowdhary, who has been disowned by her household and is now attempting to restart her life from scratch in Mumbai.
Sounds acquainted? Nicely, that is as a result of we’ve seen the storyline tens of millions of occasions throughout genres. Name Me Bae closely borrows parts from related works performed previously, together with Schitt’s Creek, 2 Broke Women, and Sonam Kapoor’s Aisha. It could remind you of Kareena Kapoor Khan’s fashion-conscious Poo from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham…, or Legally Bloonde’s sorority queen-turned-Harvard-educated-lawyer Reese Witherspoon on multiple event— the basic trope of a seemingly air-headed woman who, seems, is a genius!
Storyline
Panday’s character is disowned by her uber-rich household after she is caught dishonest on her husband
If I had been to present it straight, Name Me Bae falls in step with typical high-school teenage dramas, which run excessive on delusion and at all times have glad 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 Amazon Unique is ready in present occasions, and in contrast to earlier works, it extensively incorporates the omnipresent world of social media – and, in fact, the next price range.
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 very good 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 round, our protagonist decides to rebuild her life from scratch, in Mumbai. Throughout the following seven episodes, we see her attempting to regulate to a brand new actuality and rewrite her life story. For sure, she succeeds, sticking to the fairy story format of the present!
The princess-turned-pauper experiences a number 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-rikshaw 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 offers her new life an sincere probability and stays optimistic. One of the best half? She would not ditch away her generosity, kindness, and religion in humanity. She’d provide you with second probabilities, battle in your friendship, and name a spade for a spade.
Name Me Bae is filled 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, a number of theorists would possibly recommend that on some stage, Bae at all times knew her household would in the end have her again, and she or he is on her strategy 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 individuals stay; for sheer leisure or a self-discovery facade. Nicely, if you happen to’re anticipating practicality in a Karan Johar manufacturing, that is on you.
As at all times, Johar has added fairly a cinematic extravagance, and every thing is conveniently falling into place for our protagonist. However, the collection made me smile a number of occasions. Generally, 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 prioritise your feminine associates) to a easy acknowledgement 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 situation the place individuals 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 learn how to talk along with your spirit animal, psychic vegan cheese and wine pairing, moral emerald jewelry design, cyberfeminism, learn how to change the world one tweet at a time, underwater basket weaving – the checklist goes on. If solely we might change to this universe!
Ananya Panday’s Bae has performed loads of quirky programs within the present similar to “learn how to 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 which may not curiosity somebody not accustomed to them. However if you’re up to date with the newest traits that catch the flowery of the youth, be up for an amusing stretch of streaming.
There are references to Jay-Z-Beyonce’s rumoured cut up, Jimmy Kimmel’s post-Oscars events, and even Fifty Shades of Gray. Panday even quotes Joey Tribbinani’s common dialogue from the American sitcom F.R.I.E.N.D.S: A second in your lips, eternally on the hips. Most likely, that is why Prime Video has particularly categorised the present for the “younger grownup viewers”.
Anyway. I used to be significantly 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, and their Google searches are proven with a particular pop-up, making the characters’ on-line experiences really feel intimately acquainted. The enhancing right here is sort 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 style decisions, social media, and popular culture. It barely touches upon delicate topics like loneliness and the influence of childhood neglect. Not an excellent job there, although. Whereas the ache of her beforehand golden-caged life resonates effectively throughout the screens, the seriousness of the difficulty is criminally undermined. The lukewarm illustration shies away from the darkish features and fails to acknowledge it as a probably life-threatening subject.
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 prison 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 performed loads of eccentric programs too: learn how to talk along with your spirit animal, psychic vegan cheese and wine pairing, moral emerald jewelry design, learn how to change the world one tweet at a time, underwater basket weaving – the checklist goes on. Nonetheless, Johar’s collection refrains from masking a lot darker features of loneliness, choosing a a lot lukewarm illustration of the intense subject.
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 up to date journalism, particularly tv journalism. The message is loud and clear: precise journalism is on the verge of extinction. We see proficient 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 a substitute of doing one thing fruitful. What a metaphorical illustration of the circus that some information channels have lowered to as we speak! There’s even {a magazine} cowl with a blurb that reads, “What to put on if you’re caught dishonest”. Christ!
Humorist Vir Das right here shines as a narcissistic journalist who believes the nation is a “beast” desirous to feed on sensationalism. He would shamelessly disclose individuals’s private lives on nationwide tv and amplify irrelevant details in his experiences so as to add the spice. For him Pakistan spells D-R-A-M-A and workplace apparel features a lux coat and a boxer. (Someone, please remind him that the work-from-home days are over, and it isn’t a mid-day Zoom assembly.) A budget information tickers in his speak present learn “Our reality is healthier than your reality” and “This subject 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? Nicely, we’ve particular journalists who love harassing individuals on their exhibits within the identify of the nation desirous to know. Should not be that tough to guess. Das’ 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 function of unethical journalists fueling the decay, in actual life. He appears to have discovered the right approach of channelling his frustration by way of his character in Name Me Bae, particularly after he was banned beforehand from sure states in India for his supposed anti-nation sentiments in a Netflix Comedy Particular for which he later received an Emmy.
The collection additionally has a quick cameo by impartial journalist Faye Desouza, who’s seen giving heartful recommendation to severe journalists ditching tv in the event that they wish to make an precise distinction. Dsouza, too, is thought for being brutally sincere concerning the barbaric decay of journalistic ethics, and her transient stint within the present makes excellent sense.
Name Me Bae Overview: Verdict
Name Me Bae fares effectively 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 advanced themes. In actual fact, it’s predictable, tacky, and overstuffed with plotholes that’ll make you sigh. Acknowledged. However that is precisely what makes it a enjoyable, senseless watch. Name Me Bae’s tone is overly enthusiastic, unrealistically optimistic, and totally dreamy, identical to its delusional protagonist. It is a present that you just flip to if you need your mind cells to relaxation and feed on senseless comedy. Do not anticipate a cerebral or visceral expertise; Name Me Bae by no means promised to be one. We now have loads of these movies and exhibits already.
Name Me Bae is a fantasy world the place every thing falls into place, and our protagonist finds overly supportive strangers who develop into her greatest associates in a surprisingly brief span of time. It is a Karan Johar-esque romp, borrowing the very 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
