From the director of Lipstick Under My Burkha and Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare, comes the Netflix India show Bombay Begums.
It follows the lives of five women from different walks of life in Mumbai, who try to hustle their way across the patriarchal society.
They are segregated by India’s socio-economic status as well as the privileges that stem from it.
All of them are interlinked in their individual struggles for staying afloat in Mumbai. However, the series is more than just a story of survival in the Indian metropolis.
Still from Bombay BegumsBombay Begums is a highly compact series of six episodes. Each episode is nearly 50 minutes long.
Director Alankrita Shrivastava, who has also cowritten and co-directed it, is able to illustrate a fairly vast canvas that thematically explores different themes with nearly six hours of run-time.
The storyline
Bombay Begums revolves around Rani (Pooja Bhatt), the CEO of Royal Bank of Bombay. The show’s other protagonists include Fatima (Shahana Goswami), Ayesha (Plabita Borthakur), and Lily (Amruta Subhash).
Fatima is soon offered the role of the deputy managing director of Royal Bank of Bombay. She is highly motivated to accept the offer.
However, Fatima’s husband, Arija (Vivek Gomber), expects her to look after the baby.
Ayesha, a hard working and ambitious young lady hailing from Indore, was initially fired by Fatima. However, she is then given a chance by Rani to work in the Royal Bank of Bombay’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) division.
Lily, a bar dancer turned sex worker, blackmails Rani as the CEO’s stepson was responsible for injuring her son in a road accident.
The series also illustrates the life of Rani’s stepdaughter, 12-year-old Shai (Aadhya Anand), who is also the narrator of the series. Her voice sheds light on the lives of other adults in the series.
Key themes of the show
Office politics, sexual harassment in the workplace, the relentless pressure on a woman to adhere to conventional expectations and also the harsh reality that women can be patriarchal too, are some of the different themes that Shrivastava weaves into the narrative.
But all of these elements have been only briefly discussed upon and not explored in detail.
The series addresses some extremely important points and provides some impactful moments, thanks to its ensemble cast.
However, the show doesn’t really leave an emotional impact on the viewers. It is evident that the director got the characters to verbalise far too much about their struggles as women.
With regards to the technical aspects of Bombay Begums, the background music and cinematography of the show creates a great ambience for a relatively serious drama.
All the romantic scenes have been shot artistically.
Performances
Pooja Bhatt, Shahana Goswami, Plabita Borthakur and Amruta Subhash have all performed their roles sincerely.
Other supporting actors including Aadhya Anand, Rahul Bose, Mahesh Rao, Imaad Shah, Vivek Gomber, Danish Husain, Nauheed Cyrusi and Vivek Tandon have also enacted their parts well.
In summary, we can certainly say that Bombay Begums is an engaging drama that shouldn’t be missed.
NOTE: THE VIEWS AND OPINION EXPRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR.
Edited by Nidhi Sahani
