The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives is about 4 girls who’ve been buddies for over 20 years, and all of them are married to Bollywood actors. They’re all stunning and rich. They’re devoted moms with pretty households. However are their lives actually fabulous sufficient for us to take a position our time in for an entire season? That’s the million-dollar query.
Opening Shot: The present units up the “who’s who” of the sequence with none hesitation, and within the very first moments of the pilot, we meet Seema, Bhavana, Maheep, and Neelam, the 4 girls of the solid who’re all married to Bollywood stars and/or have kids or different relations who’re well-known within the Indian leisure business. The voiceover describing every lady’s household and their relationships to 1 one other is a mile a minute on goal however a bit arduous to observe, given their huge household timber. Should you stroll away remembering something from it, it’s that they’re all jewellery or style designers who love wine and friendship.
The Gist: Maheep Kapoor is, not less than within the pilot, the lady round whom the remainder of the present’s stars revolve. Married to Bollywood actor Sanjay Kapoor, Maheep’s daughter Shanaya is headed to Paris together with her mother and father to attend le Bal, a debutante coming-out affair. Shanaya is one in all about two dozen younger girls invited to attend this unique occasion which is for the “cream of the cream,” as they describe it, of girls from world wide. That explains why I, somebody who remains to be unshowered at 4 p.m., has by no means heard of it.
Whereas Maheep and Sanjay sit at a Paris café discussing Louis Vuitton and eat escargot, Neelam Kothari is again in Mumbai studying strains for a script that was despatched to her which is filled with swears. Neelam was an actress in her youthful days however give up and refuses to swear, kiss different males or do something that could possibly be perceived as improper, on digicam. Truthfully, of all of the individuals on this sequence or any actuality sequence, her prudishness not less than makes her uniquely attention-grabbing.
Subsequent is Seema, who can’t cease DMing Kim Kardashian. A designer and Kardashian-lover, Seema can be attention-grabbing in that she has two sons and remains to be married to her husband, actor Sohail Khan, however she doesn’t dwell with him and likes it that approach. Bhavana, married to actor Chunky Pandey, has two daughters, one in all whom is rising star herself, Ananya.
What Exhibits Will It Remind You Of? Bollywood Wives is harking back to many, many different formulaic reveals about teams of girls, from the Actual Housewives franchise to Hollywood Exes. Hollywood Exes, a present starring Eddie Murphy’s ex-wife Nicole and her well-known buddies, solely lasted three brief seasons on VH1, due primarily to the truth that the ladies, like the ladies on Bollywood Wives, have been real-life buddies who courted little drama. Arguments felt manufactured and low stakes in consequence, and, as unhappy as this sounds, nobody desires to look at a actuality present a couple of bunch of lifelong buddies who respect one another an excessive amount of to let petty arguments get out of hand.
Our Take: At one level throughout the pilot of The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives, Seema discusses the Keeping Up With The Kardashians finale together with her son, who calls her a wannabe Kim Kardashian. Seema explains how she repeatedly sends Kim, whom she doesn’t really know, pictures of garments from her quick style line, or to simply want her a cheerful birthday. It’s second that tells you all you want to know concerning the present and seems like it might have been finest left on the chopping room ground, simply the truth that this model new actuality present, which is little doubt impressed by the success of reveals like KUWTK, has to mine one other actuality present, the one in opposition to which all others are measured, for a subject of dialog is both tremendous meta, or a purpose it might be too mundane to care about.
And mundane it’s. Sure, these girls and their households all have cash, good houses, and well-known buddies, however what are we watching them do? Hang around on every others’ couches, focus on their children’ blossoming careers, FaceTime with their households… Aren’t all of us doing that? The place is the escape? Are their lives fabulous? In all probability! To them! But it surely’s not terribly thrilling, and positively not a factor I want to look at for eight episodes.
Intercourse and Pores and skin: Nope.
Parting Shot: Will Sanjay Kapoor’s poor waltzing expertise be the laughing inventory of le Bal? These are the very best stakes of episode one, which is titled “Of Waltzes and Water Bras.” The waltz is among the two largest moments within the episode. Sanjay’s incapacity to rely in 3/4 time is the cliffhanger we’re left with and, spoiler alert, in episode two when he really has to waltz, he does high quality.
Sleeper Star: To be completely sincere, nobody comes off as being terribly attention-grabbing within the pilot, and the “Coming Up” previews for the season are so bland that there’s nobody to supply comedian reduction or excessive drama.
Most Pilot-y Line: “Every one in all us has a really distinct, sturdy character. You understand, Bhavana’s the non secular one. Seema’s the loudmouth. The confused one. Maheep is the one who simply says it as it’s. I’m the one who’s extra guarded,” Neelam Kothari says on the prime of the present. This ought to be a log line within the present’s description, not essentially precise dialogue to set the characters as much as attempt to pigeonhole every lady into a particular archetype.
Our Name: SKIP IT! Certain, it’s all the time enjoyable to peek into the actual houses of wealthy individuals, however other than actor Chunky Pandey telling his spouse Bhavana he thinks somebody is stealing his Japanese whiskey (so in consequence, he units up hidden cameras all through the home), we don’t even get an awesome have a look at these fabulous lives in any new and attention-grabbing methods, whether or not by way of their tradition or simply merely their personalities. The ladies journey with 1,000,000 suitcases, focus on bras and cosmetic surgery, and drink collectively. For these of us who’ve exhausted our western actuality TV reveals and hoped for one thing new right here, there’s too little Indian tradition represented to make it attention-grabbing, and the ladies’s personalities aren’t sufficient of a draw. The result’s an all-too-familiar rehash of a drained system.
Liz Kocan is a popular culture author residing in Brooklyn. Her largest declare to fame is the time she gained on the sport present Chain Response.
