Stars: 4/5
Cast: Shabana Azmi, Shalini Pandey, Jyothika, Anjali Anand, Gajraj Rao, Sai Tamhankar, Jisshu Sengupta, Anjali Anand, Sunil Grover. Directed by Hitesh Bhatia for creators Shibani Akhtar, Vishnu Menon, Gaurav Kapur and Akansha Seda, the script is co-written by Menon and Bhavna Kher.
There are total 7 episodes with an average runtime of 45-50 minutes each. I’d like to start off with claps for the ladies and the gents for doing a great job when it comes to playing the part! The show is about a bunch of women living in the same society turning into drug peddlers through a dabba service (tiffin box service) that they offer to a wide plethora of customers. The character woven plot-line of VivaLife Pharmaceuticals is perfect with lives of each character intertwined with each other as they live together in a VivaLife residential complex. Tiffins with drugs are supplied to customers with bindi on the dabba serving as a marker. Everything is going well till the small time dabba service cum drug peddlers crosses their with one of the top 5 pharmaceutical companies Viva Life and there starts the roller coaster! One of the scenes talk about this Mahila Mitra Mandal gang (read: all woman gang) as Narcos Thane and rightly so! Special mentions to Sunil Grover where he takes the pace to next level playing this crazy billionaire mafia character. Basically, his entry into the show is making me itch to watch the season 2 already and with Netflix India, god knows when it’ll come out.
Shabana Azmi has absolutely killed it in the show but somewhere I felt that this character was inspired by Dimple Kapadia’s character Savitri from Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo. Moreover, the plot is also loosely similar to that of Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo. BUT, YOU CANNOT COMPARE EVERY WOMEN CENTRIC DRUG DRAMA AND CALL IT LOOSELY INSPIRED OFF EACH OTHER. Yeah, I agree!
Bottom line –
It seems like Netflix and Excel Entertainment gave a jaw breaking answer to Jio Hotstar and Maddock Entertainment’s Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo and personally I think the simplicity of the former wins here. It’s a well produced show with on-point writing and excellent direction with all the bells and whistles. Casting is perfect, each and every actor has done a flawless job blending into the characters. I believe it isThis show will certainly keep you on the edge of your seat and yearning for more. I swear once you start watching this, you won’t be able to stop binging. It’s certainly a must-watch.
