Killer ingredients rustle up a sumptuous treat

Sheetal

Advertisement

Abhishek Chaubey is an ace when it comes to the black comedy genre. Throw an unconventional romantic jodi into the mix and the recipe would be ‘killer’ indeed. He has done it in the past — in ‘Ishqiya’ with Naseeruddin Shah and Vidya Balan, and again with Naseer and Madhuri, paired opposite each other for the first time in ‘Dedh Ishqiya’. In his latest OTT outing, Manoj Bajpayee and Konkona Sen Sharma give performances par excellence.

Konkona plays Swathi Shetty, who lives in the fictional city of Mainjur in South India. Her husband Prabhakar Shetty aka Prabhu is a real estate agent and a conman, the man of the house, a dominating one at that. She seeks out a secret life under the name Manisha Koirala and has an extramarital affair with her husband’s masseur Umesh Mahto. She is also working on her ambition to learn cooking so as to open her restaurant one day. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, her secret life is exposed and her husband gets accidently killed in the heat of the moment. The series picks up from there, but soon becomes tedious with a plot twist that becomes less and less appealing over time. If not for the love of climax or our lead actors, some might turn off their TV screens. Five episodes could have contained the damage; a tighter screenplay would have made it a ‘five star’ show; the climax could have been more convincing.

It’s highly unbelievable that a woman falls in love with two men with striking resemblance, both played by Bajpayee, except Umesh, the lover, has crossed-eye condition. However, given that we get to watch two Manoj Bajpayees, why complain! The actor delivers the two characters with ease. Even though Manoj Bajpayee as Prabhu gets killed in the second episode, you miss him sorely! Only Bajpayee can have that effect.

Ignore the minor flaws in the screenplay, and the chemistry between Konkona and Bajpayee would be a challenge to match for a long time to come. Konkona’s smile and eyes talk and the rest of the performance falls into place with her multi-dimensional and multi-lingual acting skills. In one of the scenes, she really wings it as she switches into another language to keep her secret so as to interact only with one person in the room to keep his mouth shut. The change in power dynamics in the Shetty household following Prabhu’s death leaves you in splits. A scene that hits hard is when Umesh asks Manisha Koirala aka Swathi if she loves him and she is lost in thoughts. Here, Konkona spoke for the many women stuck in loveless lives as wives, while also feeling incomplete with their unambitious lovers.

For someone like me, who doesn’t know how to cook, the series coaxes you to hire a loyal teacher, played here by Ashwini Kalsekar. As Konkona’s teacher, the actress leaves an impression in her small role, especially with her Hyderabadi dialect.

Background music is average but the placement of ‘Tu Hi Re’ is appropriate — the song is from Mani Ratnam’s ‘Bombay’ that had Manisha Koirala in the lead role. That’s where Swathi chose her second name from! Konkana’s look and costumes are impressive, especially the vermilion sun tikka that she applies on her forehead and which eventually gets her caught. Not everybody can stomach this killer soup, but mind you, its star ingredients, Konkona and Bajpayee, are a weird chemistry of flavours you never knew you needed!