Call Me Bae an elevating tale of resolute womanhood

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I had this deep impression that other than Janhvi Kapoor, no actress from the post-Alia Bhatt-Taapsee (2012-2013) generation could carry a story on her shoulders alone. But Ananya Panday has proved me completely wrong. And now I am waiting for other actresses to follow suit.

And one more thing: I have never subscribed to the preposterous theory that pretty / sexy / both pretty and sexy girls are just decorative objects and cannot act. There have been enough names in Hindi cinema that have proved me wrong, Alia’s mother-in-law Neetu Singh for one, Dimple Kapadia for another. And many more…!

Of course, it goes without saying that for such a talent to shine, the written material and director should also be strong, and that is eminently the case with Call Me Bae, a feel-good elevating series on an heiress (Ananya Panday) who is disowned by her husband, in-laws and parents (who are all uber-rich) up North and finds her moorings by fighting all the odds in her life in distant Mumbai.

Creator and co-writer Ishita Moitra has long since proved that she is like a Czarina of strong, woman-oriented content that mixes comedy, emotions and drama in the perfect (read entertaining and relatable) proportions. And this one’s no different.

The struggles of Bae are as much involving as they are funny and her journey of adventures and misadventures is loaded with the  right buddies, adversaries and detractors that she acquires en route. Her husband, Agastya (Vihaan Samat) has divorced her after she is caught making out with her trainer, Prince Bhasin (Varun Sood), who is also an expert in hacking. In Mumbai, she lands up in a news channel where the idealistic Neel (Gurfateh Pirzada) also falls for her. Bae is an Instagram addict and ridicules Satyajit (Vir Das) on social media. Satyajit is Neel’s office colleague, who thinks no end of himself and is least bothered about truth as an entity. He believes in sensational reporting on his show, even destroying celebrity reputations and lives with the excuse that he is delivering truth to his viewers. Satyajit has not forgiven Bae for ridiculing him on social media and makes her his assistant when she is employed in his firm, harassing her in petty ways.

And then we have Bae’s besties, the simple and earthy Saira (Muskkaan Jaferi) and the eager and intense Tammarrah (Niharika Lyra Dutt). At the other end is Mukul (Sahil Shroff), an unscrupulous man who poses as a women’s champion but exploits them sexually.

Things change when an anonymous actress, who calls herself Anamika, sends Bae a video that exposes the evil acts of Mukul. And Bae must expose him even as Satyajit wants to defend his friend as a true-blue good man. The final, slightly longer episode is a hoot as well as a dramatic triumph.

A screenplay that has repeat value (a great rarity in even good web series!), racy dialogues (both by Ishita and co-writers) and superb direction sans frills makes Call Me Bae one of Indian web series’ finest non-crime shows and also the best-ever so far from Dharmatic Entertainment. Collin D’Cunha shows promise at being a master entertainer.

Technically wonderful, Call Me Bae’s only negative point is the overwhelmingly Punjabi music. I repeat—WHY this overdose of Punjabi music with entire Punjabi lyrics? Why are we forgetting how Punjabi, like any other Indian language (Marathi, Gujarati, Rajasthani, Bengali, Kashmiri, UP’s Hindi dialects and even South Indian ones) have been used so charmingly in small doses in Hindi songs over the decades?

Ananya is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious—for the unversed, that means superlative in every way to the maximum degree, a term in wide use courtesy the Hollywood classic, Mary Poppins. The actors playing her men and her besties are also all extraordinary, and Vihaan’s expressions, Varun’s body language and the chameleonic girls are simply wonderful. Vir Das is the perfect slime he is supposed to be and Sayani Gupta as Anamika is adorable in her vulnerability. Faye D’Souxa charms in her cameo and Mini Mathur is perfectly hoity-toity as Bae’s ultra-rich mom.

And as a fare for a home watch, Call Me Bae, in every way, is ultra-rich as well. And I am surprised that Amazon Prime, its OTT channel that over-hypes so many of its insipid or mediocre shows, has not hyped this wonderful confection.

Rating: ****1/2

Amazon Prime Video presents Dharmatic Entertainment’s Call Me Bae  Created by: Ishita Moitra  Executive Producers: Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta & Somen Mishra  Directed by: Collin D’Cunha  Written by: Ishita Moitra, Samina Motlekar & Rohit Nair  Music: Rochak Kohli, Ruuh & Abhijeet Srivastava  Starring: Ananya Panday, Gurfateh Pirzada, Varun Sood, Vihaan Samat, Vir Das, Muskkaan Jaferi, Niharika Lyra Dutt, Lisa Mishra, Sameer Malhotra, Mini Mathur, Shiv Masand, Beila Gupta, Sahil Shroff, Riya Sen, Suchitra Pillai, Ashmita Jaggi, Riya Sisodiya, Sp. App. : Karishma Tanna, Urvashi Rautela, Sayani Gupta, Harman Singha, Faye D’Souza, Orhan “Orry” Awantramani & others