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 sequence, Name Me Bae, falls into the latter class. It’s primarily the story of an uber-rich Bella “Bae” Chowdhary, who has been disowned by her household and is now making an attempt to restart her life from scratch in Mumbai.
Sounds acquainted? Nicely, that is as a result of we now have seen the storyline hundreds of thousands of instances throughout genres. Name Me Bae closely borrows components from comparable works completed previously, together with Schitt’s Creek, 2 Broke Women, and Sonam Kapoor’s Aisha. It might 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 a couple of event— the traditional trope of a seemingly air-headed lady 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 have been to provide it straight, Name Me Bae falls in step with typical high-school teenage dramas, which run excessive on delusion and all the time have comfortable endings. Bear 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 instances, and in contrast to earlier works, it extensively incorporates the omnipresent world of social media – and, after all, a better finances.
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 great 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 hundreds of thousands of {dollars}’ price of outfits and equipment, towards 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 making an attempt to regulate to a brand new actuality and rewrite her life story. Evidently, she succeeds, sticking to the fairy story format of the present!
The princess-turned-pauper experiences quite a lot 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 in regards to the future, she provides her new life an trustworthy probability and stays optimistic. The most effective half? She does not ditch away her generosity, kindness, and religion in humanity. She’d offer you second probabilities, battle to 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 drag 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 sequence, quite a lot of theorists would possibly counsel that on some degree, Bae all the time knew her household would finally have her again, and she or he is on her solution 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 folks reside; for sheer leisure or a self-discovery facade. Nicely, in case you’re anticipating practicality in a Karan Johar manufacturing, that is on you.
As all the time, Johar has added fairly a cinematic extravagance, and every thing is conveniently falling into place for our protagonist. Nonetheless, the sequence made me smile a number of instances. Typically, a reminder of how good issues can flip served with a aspect of hope is simply what we want, and Panday’s sequence 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 improper 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 find out how to talk along with your spirit animal, psychic vegan cheese and wine pairing, moral emerald jewelry design, cyberfeminism, find out how to change the world one tweet at a time, underwater basket weaving – the listing goes on. If solely we may change to this universe!
Ananya Panday’s Bae has completed loads of quirky programs within the present equivalent to “find out 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 that may not curiosity somebody not conversant in them. However in case you are up to date with the most recent 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 break up, Jimmy Kimmel’s post-Oscars events, and even Fifty Shades of Gray. Panday even quotes Joey Tribbinani’s well-liked dialogue from the American sitcom F.R.I.E.N.D.S: A second in your lips, eternally on the hips. In all probability, that is why Prime Video has particularly categorised the present for the “younger grownup viewers”.
Anyway. I used to be notably impressed by how the present skillfully captured the essence of social media in a playful and relatable manner, successfully conveying its pervasive presence in our lives. Each 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 modifying 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.
Nevertheless, Name Me Bae is not nearly jaw-dropping vogue decisions, social media, and popular culture. It barely touches upon delicate topics like loneliness and the affect of childhood neglect. Not a fantastic 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 elements and fails to acknowledge it as a probably life-threatening difficulty.
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 legal 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 best way, she has completed loads of eccentric programs too: find out how to talk along with your spirit animal, psychic vegan cheese and wine pairing, moral emerald jewelry design, find out how to change the world one tweet at a time, underwater basket weaving – the listing goes on. Nevertheless, Johar’s sequence refrains from protecting a lot darker elements of loneliness, choosing a a lot lukewarm illustration of the intense difficulty.
Characters
As per Karan Johar, Ananya Panday’s Bae is the modern-day equal of Poo from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham
Though, the sequence does take a critical 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 gifted 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 decreased to as we speak! There’s even {a magazine} cowl with a blurb that reads, “What to put on whenever you’re caught dishonest”. Christ!
Slapstick comedian 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 folks’s private lives on nationwide tv and enlarge irrelevant details in his studies 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. (Any individual, 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 discuss present learn “Our fact is best than your fact” and “This difficulty wants a tissue”.
In a scene, he shouts, “Mujhe medicine do” [give me drugs] whereas alleging a wrestler of being doped earlier than a match. Reminded of somebody? Nicely, we now have particular journalists who love harassing folks on their reveals within the title 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 position of unethical journalists fueling the decay, in actual life. He appears to have discovered the right manner of channelling his frustration by 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 Special for which he later gained an Emmy.
The sequence additionally has a short cameo by unbiased journalist Faye Desouza, who’s seen giving heartful recommendation to critical journalists ditching tv in the event that they need to make an precise distinction. Dsouza, too, is understood for being brutally trustworthy in regards to the barbaric decay of journalistic ethics, and her transient stint within the present makes good sense.
Name Me Bae Assessment: Verdict
Name Me Bae fares effectively as a feel-good sequence the place practicality is changed by fairy-tale model of life
Ananya Panday’s sequence 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 completely dreamy, identical to its delusional protagonist. It is a present that you just flip to whenever 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 have now loads of these movies and reveals already.
Name Me Bae is a fantasy world the place every thing falls into place, and our protagonist finds overly supportive strangers who turn out to be her finest 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