Table of Contents
About the Series
| Created by / Director | Ishita Moitra / Colin D’Cunha |
| Cast | Ananya Panday, Vir Das, Gurfateh Pirzada, Varun Sood, Vihaan Samat, Muskkaan Jaferi, Niharika Lyra Dutt, Lisa Mishra and Mini Mathur |
| Genre | Comedy Drama |
| Episodes | 8 |
Masala! Verdict
| Rating |  |
| 50-Word Review | Call Me Bae is self-aware. That it is not too much more is what makes the series so disappointing. The writing lacks incisiveness and the support performances lack depth. Ananya Pandey shines as Bella Chowdhary aka Bae but is hamstrung by the show’s lack of depth to balance the frivolity. |
| Vibe |  |
Masala! Review
When Ananya Pandey’s Bae (Bella Chowdhary) is trying to convince a paranoid actor, she says “Darr sab ko lagta hain.” There’s a long pause. This is a scene from Episode 7 of Call Me Bae and given the tone of the show and the multitude of pop culture references, I filled the silence by telling myself, “Gala sab ka sookhta hain.” At various points in the show, audiences are left to amuse themselves like this because the show is not doing enough. But, Bae and the writers of the show sprung a surprise when they followed the awkward silence with “Darr ke aage dosti hain.” Unlike 90% of the other pop culture references and nudge-nudge, wink-wink jokes, this moment is genuinely funny. The problem though is that in the scene, Bae is trying to convince the paranoid actor that she should not worry about consequences and out her predator. This was not the scene for that joke!
Call Me Bae is not a series out to make bold, scathing political commentary. While the makers might take offence if we go as far as calling it ‘Cringe Binge’ (the fact that the show dropped on Prime Video a mere two weeks after Follow Kar Lo Yaar came out on the same platform does not help), it is a show designed to purely be fun and irreverent. Yet, to lend balance and add some emotional heft to the protagonist’s arc, it tries to explore a few issues such as kleptomania (perhaps one of the most wannabee flaws of all time), gambling addiction, unmet parental emotional needs and the MeToo movement. Of course, sensationalism in the news industry is an issue the show gets a chance to explore well (and does do it better than any other issue) for that’s more the milieu in which the narrative is set in. But, while it is irreverent, it is not imaginative enough to command your attention. Also, not one of the somewhat serious issues leaves you feeling anything.
Story and Screenplay
Creator Ishita Moitra is a millennial like me and I suspect most of the show’s audiences. She and writers Samina Motlekar & Rohit Nair serve up a breezy comedy-drama that is stuffed with a ton of both millennial and GenZ references, hat tips and inspirations. I must admit we don’t often get to watch shows like Call Me Bae and it was a lot of fun to wait for the next reference and see if I can spot it. The show derives from and leans on titles such as Marvellous Mrs Maisel, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Emily in Paris, The Devil Wears Prada, Bridgerton, Ayesha and more. But, in essence, Bae is the spiritual successor of Kareena Kapoor Khan’s Poo from K3G. Direct references to the ‘Minus…,’ ‘Toodles,” ‘Gym class today,’ and ‘It’s all about loving your Gram Fam’ aside, Bae is Poo out of college and with a job.
Call Me Bae is at its hilarious best when it looks at post-2014 Indiam mainstream news with an R. K. Narayanan lens. From Deepak Chaurasia’s astronaut suit to Navika Kumar’s show to the Eleven Jinping moment to many more, these references to Indian media land well and are often acutely funny. Of course, the focus is on Arnab Goswami for Vir Das’ Satyajit Sen is a parody of the man. We get all the major references from the ‘Drug do’ to ‘IMMA bounce’ to ‘Khan Market gangs’ and more.
There are references from outside mainstream news too with ‘Ishq waala…Yuck,’ Siddhant Chaturvedi’s famous one-liner about nepotism, and ‘Hypocrisy ke bhi seema hoti hain.’ Call Me Bae even straps on a pair and makes references to a certain Aatmanirbhar party and a True People’s Party. These are the references that don’t always land for they neither work purely comedically and are not particularly sharp observations either.
When Call Me Bae stops borrowing from pop culture and news media and comes up with original stuff, we are delivered things such as Behen-code (Bro-code ~ Behenc**d), Posh Lives Matter, ‘Pehle Bhagwaan deta tha, ab Bhagwaan data hain,’ Madh Island Ice Tea (with the introduction of Old Monk), and the discombobulation of a Faiz Ahmed Faiz sher. The problem with most of these jokes and in fact, most of the show is that it never realises that being self-aware isn’t enough. Take the name of the news channel where Bae works. Of course, the joke is that it is such an obvious joke! That’s it! There’s nothing more to it. Yes, at no point does the show take itself too seriously. But, that it can’t expect a standing ovation simply for that reason is lost to the makers.
Imagine an entitled SoBo kid who wants to become a writer. She asks her driver to take her to Marine Drive for she can only be creative around the ocean. While he is waiting for her 20 feet away, she makes her way to the bench, looks at the waves and starts writing. With a pen. Now, imagine she knows exactly how pretentious she is being. So, she writes a scene or a chapter about an entitled kid being pretentious and believing that she can only write when listening to the sounds of the ocean. But, if nothing precedes or succeeds or layers this observation, the fact that the writer is self-aware adds nothing to what is being written!
Performances
It is very easy to not take Ananya Pandey too seriously as an actor. In many public appearances, Pandey has indeed shown that she’s extremely self-aware and is hence cast perfectly in the show. Bae is vulnerable, charming and talented. That Pandey is also all of these things is irrelevant. That she incorporates all of these things into her performance is creditable. One can sure point to a few scenes here and there where the wide-eyed Bae can get on your nerves. But, Ananya Pandey is thoroughly watchable as Bella Chowdhary. Here’s more. The fact that she nails the flashback sequences about her kleptomania is perhaps why the sequence sticks out like a sore thumb. The writing does not allow that emotionally loaded scene to flourish in the series. When the actor does flourish in the scene, it just looks even more out of place.
The ensemble cast features Muskkaan Jaferi and Niharika Lyra Dutt as her confidantes, Saira and Tammarrah, part of the girl gang who institute the Behen-code. Jaferi is effervescent and Dutt can do without playing journalists in the near future. The three men in Bae’s life are ex-husband Vihaan Samat (Agastya Chowdhary), boss and current flame Gurfateh Pirzada (Neel Nair) and former fling Varun Sood (Prince Bhasin). All of them look like Gladrags models and only one of them, Prince has any reason to. While Sood is pretty endearing as the green-flag Haryanvi gym trainer, the blush on his cheeks was a consistent distraction. Pirzada is a little too stiff and reminded me of model-turned-actors from the early 2000s. Samat has the chops and should do well in a role that gives him more to do. Lisa Mishra as Harleen Babbar tries really hard too. But, the biggest disappointment for me was a man I love immensely for his comedy, Vir Das. He had so much scope to come up with a memorable performance and Das simply lacks the wherewithal to be able to do so. His training and instincts are all designed to deliver lines and ideas in front of a live audience; not to be someone else. There are few better personalities who could be Satyajit Sen but the show could have done a whole lot better had it cast a better actor.
Direction and Craft
Like an intense whodunit where the writer does all the heavy-lifting and the director has to execute the writer’s vision while shaping the visual language of the film/show among other things, director Colin D’Cunha is handed what to make. Even the comedy is always never physical and doesn’t need the director to create magic. It is all in the lines. Were the show a resounding success, D’Cunha would not be where most of the bouquets would be headed. That the show is underwhelming is no slight on his abilities. Much like Pandey acting well in a flashback sequence, D’Cunha shoots some of those scenes with emotional heft with a lot of gravitas. Which is why they look so odd in a series where the writing makes no room for depth.
Call Me Bae is seldom dull. But it never scales the comedic heights it sometimes aspires to. It also doesn’t have the maturity to pick up serious issues like sexual harassment, privacy & data theft and engage with them with a lightness that doesn’t look or feel like casualness. The critical failure of the series is that it thinks being self-aware is enough! The hollowness of the writing cannot be saved by this alone. Or by the fact that this is perhaps the only film/show I have ever seen where an attempt is made to promote the show during the show! Orry, playing himself talks to a few paps and says, Call Me Bae! Of course, he is referring to the show which airs on TRP First News. But, we all know what he is promoting. What/who can save the show? Naman Arora!
Watch the trailer of Call Me Bae here.
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