Broken But Beautiful, A Web Series With A Heart

Broken But Beautiful

Starring: Vikrant Massey,Harleen Sethi

Rating: ***(3 stars)

 After watching  dark violent sagas of gangsters  doing unspeakable things  to their  enemies and  mistresses it is a relief to watch a webseries which  addresses the heart  in all its  scrambled complicated  glory.

Broken But Beautiful is about two damaged/broken/shattered  people who keep running into one  another  until the inevitable  happens. The  plot  makes some familiar  noises  as the couple-to-be clash over issues ranging from bereavement  to  real-estate acquisition. While much of the plotting is done  with the romantic  definitiveness of a Mills & Boon romance(Boy Hates Girl At First Sight, and so on) there is yet a sense of  spontaneity in the way the characters respond to the given emotional  stimuli.

Some of  the  interludes  like the one in a café where  Dumped Girl Ticks Off Grieving Husband are powerful  enough to  bolster the whole series. However when the series tries to crowd the miniature frames with characters  the narrative begins to flounder.

Much of  the writing in the 11 episodes is reflective of  the  urban anxieties that define relationships in a  competitive ruthless rapidly-moving society. What happens when one of the  couple decides to quit  a relationship?

Newcomer Harleen Sethi portrays that horrific state of  frozen  anxiety with  a substantial empathy  for her broken character. Though Sameera often comes  close to making a complete fool of herself, Sethi stands by the characters lending strength to her weaknesses.

It is crystal-clear that Sethi’s Sameera and her mortifying self-abusive ektarfa-pyar is  inspired  by Kareena Kapoor’s Geet in Imtiaz Ali’s Jab We Met.  The likeness is not the least off-putting.  This girl’s struggle to come  to terms with being dumped is  her own.

It is the  impressively talented Vikrant Massey  who anchors the series , harnesses  its inner core of raw feelings , and makes us watch till the very end.Massey plays a man who is living with his dead wife. He talks to her constantly , seeks  her approval in everything he does and  insults anyone who warns him against his cadaverous relationship.

 It’s a role that could easily fall prey to ridicule.Massey gives  enormous dignity to Veer’s struggle to live with his love even after death.

There are interesting characters like  Sameera’s two best friends  strewn  all over  the series.One of them in a fit of  inebriated rage  howls,  “Kuch toh log kahenge logon ka kaamhai kehna…this is what  Sant Kabir  once said.”

Amen to that. Broken But Beautiful celebrates the shallowness of  a generation that has moved on leaving the grieving to their own  devices.