Bhaag Beanie Bhaag Review: Doesn’t Reach the Finish Line!
Directed by Debbie Rao, Ishaan Nair, and Abi Varghese comes Netflix’s new original content, Bhaag Beanie Bhaag. With six almost half-hour episodes, the show deals with the protagonist Beanie (Swara Bhasker) who shed’s her perfectly planned life with Arun (Varun Thakur) to explore her dreams to be a Stand-Up Comedian. On this journey, she is joined by Rav (Ravi Patel), an NRI stand-up comedian, and her BFF Kapi (Dolly Singh).
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Bhaag Beanie Bhaag is as original as the title of the show, which is a just a lazy Hindi version of runaway bride. The tried and tested formula of a woman discovering her passion on the eve of wedding (roka in this case) will also be found here. What the audience follows is Beanie’s journey as a vulnerable 29 year old woman, who with her ingrained doubts, tries her hand in the Indian Comic Scene.
Basing a show on stand comedy could have at least warranted the makers to put in some good original stand up sets. However lame jokes, which have been heard over the years ,have been given for the lead to perform as stand up.
In the first episode, a scene between Beanie and her boss implies that if women choose to get married, have kids and have the so-called “Punjabi Housewife Life†should be looked down upon. Makers should realize that empowered women are not limited to ones who are “out there,†any woman who has a choice in her life is empowered.
Furthermore, what is very ironic is the fact that the lead while being on own her path of discovering feminism, performs sexist jokes about females and vegetables. It is tiring to see people glorifying reckless decision making which the lead in [Bhaag Beanie Bhaag] does, overturning not just her life but a lot of people around her.
They were many loopholes in the plot like the one where Beanie’s parents, who at one point are uncomfortable in the new “elite” crowd, later have no qualms in dialing up the same to enquire about their daughter. It makes the entire middle class and rich setup confusing.
Also, a major loophole, dialect and language picked up by the characters. It seems as if the dialogue writers were unaware that the show is being set in Mumbai and not Delhi because a lot of the dialogues, especially from Swara Bhasker are picked up straight from the Delhi way of talking.
Bhaag Beanie Bhaag gives you many glimpses of The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel but definitely not in a good way. Many subplots seemed to have been lifted and some dialogues also resemble the Amazon Prime Original. The screenplay of the show is bland, storyline predictive and we felt really disconnected to the characters. Again we cannot the stress upon the fact that the jokes used in the show weren’t funny and very stereotypical. We expected more from the show which has a young outlook and many comics as a part of their line-up.
Swara Bhaskar as Beanie falls flat in the character. She appears to be trying hard to come off as the girl next door but somewhere between the unfunny situations and her own performance that effort goes to vain. Also she speaks in two distinct accents while speaking in English which seems really weird.
The funny moments come from Dolly Singh who plays Beanie’s influencer best friend and Beanie’s parents played by Mona Ambegaonkar and Girish Kulkarni. Dolly Singh owns each frame and in this ensemble your eyes are immediately drawn to her. It doesn’t seem that this is her debut as she has a strong screen presence.
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Mona Ambegaonkar’s talent shines through her portrayal as the supportive and embracing mother. Girish Kulkarni and her have amazing chemistry and their scene with the therapist is very good. Ravi Patel as the American Indian comic fits his part well but after a certain point there’s not much in the script for him to do. Varun Thakur as Arun is a sincere performance which starts of as over the top but towards the end turns refined.
Bhaag Beanie Bhaag showed little promise in the promos and that comes true when you watch the full season. Its not binge worthy and can certainly be categorised as running in the background while checking my phone genre. Watch ‘Bhaag Beanie Bhaag’ on Netflix here.Â
Rating – 2/5 | Grade – C
Images via Netflix India
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