Louder, glitzier and not any wiser
Review: When Maheep Kapoor, Neelam Kothari, Bhavana Panday and Seema Khan appeared in the first season of an unabashedly inconsequential indulgence of their privileged lifestyles, it did have some shock value and curiosity around all the fluff in their lives. While we admit that was some harmless fun during those gloomy pandemic induced days of 2020, at least now, can we get slightly more real? Instead, season 2 of ‘Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives’ cranks up the meaninglessness even further with a heavily scripted drama that stays painfully superficial and glitzy. There’s barely a moment or two of something real within the seemingly perfect lives of these women, who seem to have it all.
The ladies sure clean up good taking the glam quotient a few notches higher this time around. The foursome put their best looks forward at all times with perfect designer wears, accessories and age-defying make-up. To give credit where it’s due, there’s a glimpse into their world of artificial cosmetic care as well with their faces and necks being injected with botox. After all, who would even utter the B-word in B-town, let alone, allowing the cameras to roll into the dermatologist’s clinic. There’s also a slight moment when Sanjay Kapoor confronts Chunky Panday about constantly being the butt of all jokes and Arjun Kapoor advising Shanaya about bearing the weight of the family name, which is endearing. But other than such rare moments, there’s hardly any real substance to this indulgent 8-episode long drama that props it up with the cameos of the who’s who of tinsel town. From Ranveer Singh flirting unabashedly with the ladies addressing them as ‘cougar central’ and ‘MILFs’ to Farah Khan’s brutal roasting of Chunky on his big day. And from Karan Johar’s sassy jibes to a generous dose of Gauri Khan’s propah screen presence, there’s no dearth of star power here. And oh, we also have a walk-in by Seema Taparia from Mumbai with her usual spiel about egos and compromise to women. But as the ladies patronise her, it’s obvious just how lazy and convenient it was to get Seema Aunty on the show for Netflix even when it adds zero value to it.
Ultimately, it is about these four women, who have been BFFs for long and yet discovering the nuances of each other’s personalities. Here is where it becomes repetitive and hollow because none of their emotions for each other feel real. Not even the talk of Seema’s divorce with her actor-filmmaker husband Sohail Khan and Samir Soni’s awkwardness with Neelam’s girl gang.
Between the four of them, Maheep Kapoor’s brief seems to be louder and more foul-mouthed this time around and Seema Sajdeh is dumbed down even further. Sample this, she takes her friends for a jungle safari and then freaks out when they spot a magnificent snake. “I don’t do reptiles,” she screams constantly between chanting her mantras. In her own words, she is instead looking for a Gucci and Chanel kinda surprise at a jungle safari. Neelam and Bhavana come across as a little more sorted and the latter even has a sweet surprise in the finale episode as the concluding big event in the end.
Overall, this second season gets louder, glitzier and makes every effort to force-fit the unwanted drama and over-the-top shenanigans of the rich and the famous. From designer wear to designer vaginas, it all feels scripted and that’s alright, but script it better.
