Masaba Masaba: A Unique Concept, ‘Familiar’ Treatment

Masaba Masaba  soon on  Netflix,  which  marks  the acting debut  of dress designer Masaba Gupta, seems  to be  a new voice in an  old jukebox. I  hate to say  ‘old wine in a new bottle’ because  the main character  that’s Masaba as Masaba  is shown  emptying  out a booze  bottle  all  alone in her room  pretending to party at the start  of  the trailer.

This little  self-generated tamasha  sets the  mood for Masaba Masaba…Why the  title twice? We may well ask .Is it because the series  offers  twice  the  entertainment quotient  of  other series? Masaba x 2   does  have a  slightly  sweaty glam-glitz look and feel to it. The last  time I saw  this  look and feel on the streaming platform was  in  the very watchable Four More Shots Please.

There is  no  need  to be  apologetic about being  part of the jetsetting  crowd. At  this time when they have nowhere  to jet to  Masaba Masaba seems a wee wistful a bit nostalgic,  celebrating the times when  women and men battled it out  in chic  hotel lobbies in outfits to match.The drinks  flowed  and  so did  the repartees. Now we have disheveled  women and men  speaking in disembodies voices on Zoom.

  Besides Masaba who plays herself,  Neena  Gupta plays her mother.  They are seen to be  squabbling a  lot and I wonder   how  much of  their real relationship  is put on film?Is this   a faithful bio-pic or a flight  of fancy version of reality with the emphasis  on  ‘fancy’? The  latter, I  suspect.

Besides Masaba  & Mom  I also  saw some other talented actors hovering around for attention.Among them the talented and always neglected  Neil Bhoopalam and Satyadeep Mishra. They play  strong men  pretending to be props.The men are clearly  dispensable here.

 Masaba Masaba is  a chic flick,  not to be mistaken with a chick flick. It is about dressing up your dreams in  the  outfit  of  opulent  conceit. Let’s see how far this conceit , so  palpable in the trailer, takes  the series when it  streams  later  this month.