Never Ending Movie Carnival
Never Ending Movie Carnival
Saas Bahu aur Flamingo Season 1 review: A pathbreaker with superlative performances
What: Saas Bahu aur Flamingo – starring Dimple Kapadia in lead along with Radhika Madan, Angira Dhar and Isha Talwar, this Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2.0 version by HomiAdjania is an ambitious path breaker that shots the cliches those ‘family’ saas bahu kinds with winning glee having style and ‘substance’.
Saas Bahu aur Flamingo Season 1 synopsis
So, its fear and snorting in the deserts of Kutch with all goli, gaali and bandook were the bahu, betiya took charge and shoot the male dominated gangster/drug-based crime dramas with aplomb.
Savitri (Dimple Kapadia) is the matriarch, the founder of Rani Cooperative a cottage industry that deals in jari-booti, balms and textiles.
But in reality, Rani Cooperative is the biggest supplier of a popular cocaine-based drug Flamingo in Asia.
Savitri is running the drugs cartel business smoothly with the help of her daughter Shanta (Radhika Madan) – the brainchild behind Flamingo, her younger daughter in law Bijli (Isha Talwar) who looks after the business and finance while her older daughter in law Kajal (Angira Dhar) looks after the manufacturing. Another character Diman (Udit Arora) – Shanta’s cousin looks after the distribution.
Savitri’s sons – played by Varun Mitra and Ashish Verma are working in US unaware of what is happening at their hometown.
The festival of Janmasthmi is around the corner and the US based Varun and Ashish make a visit to their mother’s place in Kutch.
Meanwhile, somebody has made a fatal duplicate of Flamingo which has resulted in hospitalisation of a young user.
The affected user turns out to be the son of a top ranked police officer and thorough investigation is ordered.
The police enter Kutch, so does the sons of Savitri, while the enemies of Savitri have already attacked her den at night.
What happens next?
After Being Cyrus, Cocktail, Finding Fanny and Angrezi Medium, Homi Adjania in his OTT debut makes a difference. Saas Bahu and Flamingo is high on substance and style.
The ambitious twist to the Saas Bahu phenomenon seen on screen big or small gets bold, quirky and is loaded with guts, guns, glory, with all the gallis, galoch, gore, partial nudity etc.
But in all the above objections in this ambition the brilliance of Homi Adjania to create an alternate universe of gangster crime drama led by a woman with her army that consists of ninety percentage of woman in their tattooed body wearing ghangra choli fearlessly fighting with swords, daggers, bandok and goli is a treat to watch.
A vivid, surreal women empowerment is on display. Saas Bahu aur Flamingo is ambitious, bold, that is likely to trigger debates post release but its intimate and powerfully performed.
Dimple Kapadia does a rare screen hero of unique dimensions. She reminded me of Rudali and here as a sort if Godmother with a twist is exceptional.
Radhika Madan as Shanta is fabulous. Angira Dhar as Kajal is outstanding and she gets a good back story as well. Isha Talwar as the younger bahu who falls in love with her DJ friend played by Monica Dongra is excellent.
Monica Dogra is very good in her role.
From the men front its Diman played by Udit Arora who gets a complex character and he does well.
Savitri’s sons – played by Varun Mitra and Ashish Verma are fine where Ashish is 24x7 shown on ‘high’ which gives this crime drama series an unnecessary stoner feel.
Deepak Dobriyal unfortunately ends up with limited expressions.
Naseeruddin Shah is as his usual. Nothing significant.
Jimit Trivedi as the cop fails to impress and is a major drawback.
Vipin Sharma is fine in trying to do something different.
Final words
As said in the promos, Saas Bahu aur Flamingo is not everyone’s cup of tea. Traditional feel good family audience stay away. Saas Bahu aur Flamingo is for those who don’t mind unnecessary cuss words, nudity, and scenes of snorting. Homi Adjania has brilliantly crafted a web series which is daring and different boosting superlative performances especially Dimple Kapadia who is a class apart. Gong with 4 stars an extra for Dimple Kapadia). Saas Bahu aur Falamingo is streaming on Disney + Hotstar from May 05, 2023 onwards.
Please note: The web series is loaded with foul language, partial nudity and violence. Its recommended for viewers aged 18 and above.
A child born from life & fed by cinema. A filmi keeda from child & a film journalist for the last fifteen years. a father, seeker, foodie who loves crooning bollywood melodies twitter.com/cineblues More By vishal verma