‘Call Me Bae’ Season 1 Review: Ananya Panday Shines in This Glossy Guilty Pleasure That Plays It Too Safe and Shallow! (LatestLY Exclusive)

Call Me Bae Season 1 Review: The one scene that resonated with me in Call Me Bae is when Ananya Panday's protagonist meets former Mirror Now anchor Faye D'Souza, who plays herself at a party. Faye tells her that real journalism lies beyond news channels, where anchors have now become actors. Aside from the randomness of the cameo and the unintentional irony of Faye 'acting' in the show, the scene makes its point effectively, particularly because Call Me Bae rarely features such moments. Created by Ishita Moitra and directed by Colin D'Cunha, Prime Video's Call Me Bae is a coming-of-age comedy that tries to tackle various subjects—satire on the ultra-rich, media corruption, the social media age, and #MeToo—but does so in a rather frivolous manner. Also, for a comedy, the laughs are few and far between. 'Call Me Bae' Actor Varun Sood Reveals Why Reality Show Success Is NOT a Ticket to Good Acting Roles.

Ananya Panday plays Bella Chowdhury, aka Bae, an air-headed yet kind-hearted rich girl groomed by her family, particularly her mother (Mini Mathur), to be the perfect bride. She marries Agastya, aka Aggy (Vihaan Samat), the heir of an ultra-billionaire family. However, after three years of marriage, she realises there's no love left in their relationship, as her husband would rather close business deals than do 'burpees' with her. In her boredom, she makes a mistake that costs her dearly. Bae is not only thrown out of her husband's house but is also shunned by her own family, who, fearing the wrath of the wealthy in-laws, want to keep their distance from her. Her social circle also abandons her.

Watch the Trailer of 'Call Me Bae':

In an attempt to appease her brother, Bae goes to Mumbai, but she has no idea how to live without money. In the city that never sleeps, Bae finds friends, a career, and a potential love interest in an upright TV journalist, Neel (Gurfateh Pirzada), while also discovering a purpose in life and finding her own footing.

'Call Me Bae' Season 1 Review - Frivolous and Occasional Fun

Call Me Bae is like that big bucket of popcorn you buy at the theatre: it's expensive but doesn't feel worth the cost. It's fun to nibble on, but once you're done with the whole packet and start feeling thirsty, you wish it had been something more satisfying. The show is a guilty pleasure—silly, hollow, and quite frivolous, but you still want to see where it's heading.

The show benefits from being packed with subplots and multiple storylines that keep it moving, even when most of it feels like a fictionalised version of The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives. So much so that I half-expected Ananya Panday's real-life mother to make a cameo. The setup of Bae's luxury predicament and her unhappy married life isn't bad, and the bubble-gum treatment of her journey from Delhi to Mumbai, and from riches to not-exactly-penury, may not make for great television, but it is casually fun in parts. Not everything makes sense, as expected—like why a hotel employee, Saira (Muskkaan Jaaferi), would take on the burden of Bae, or why a social-media-hating, principled journalist like Neel would want to hire Bae as an intern just because her video went viral.

'Call Me Bae' Season 1 Review - Hollow Subplots

Call Me Bae also serves as a critique of TRP-chasing news channels and their loud, obnoxious anchors, represented here by Satyajit Sen, aka SS (Vir Das). The character is clearly a riff on a very loud-mouthed and narcissistic TV anchor Bollywood loves to mock.

While Das brings the character to life with a fun, acidic bite, the attempt to flesh out his character beyond the unsavoury traits—by exploring his family dynamics and his affair with his producer (Lisa Mishra)—falls flat. I felt the same about Bae's overly predictable love quadrangle involving Neel, Agastya, and her hunky gym trainer, Prince (Varun Sood), who also conveniently happens to be a computer hacker. Why 'convenient', you ask? You'll get the reference in the final couple of episodes.

I was more invested in the friendship that developed between Bae, Saira, and Tammarrah (Niharika Lyra Dutt). Though rushed in parts, the charm of this subplot and the performances of the ladies kept me going through the silliness of the screenplay.

There's also a subplot where they try to figure out the identity of an actress who sends Bae a tape accusing an industrialist of sexual harassment. The #MeToo aspect is treated as shallowly as Student of the Year handles homosexuality. Still, the conclusion of this subplot in the finale is punchy when Bae confronts the villains in their own arena. ‘Call Me Bae’ Song ‘Vekh Sohneyaa’: Ananya Panday’s Vibrant New Track Highlights Her Character Bella’s Journey.

'Call Me Bae' Season 1 Review - Ananya Panday Shines

Ananya Panday, I must say, was born to play this role, bringing enough liveliness and spunk to the character and even being effective in the rare dramatic moments. I had hoped that Bae would be written more along the lines of Schitt's Creek's Alexis Murphy—a pampered, spoilt daughter thrown into penury and finding herself coming of age with the less privileged.

Instead, Bae feels more like a cross between two of Ananya's previous characters—the poor little rich girl from Student of the Year 2 and the annoying influencer from Liger. Luckily, Bae is less annoying than those two characters. Or maybe I just became numb after watching her antics through all eight episodes. The writing, at times, felt confused about the level of bubble-wrapping around her privileged existence. Like she keeps dropping all the courses she has done over the years, and yet she is also vacuous enough not to know what an auto-rickshaw is. I mean, I get you may not have travelled in one thanks to your entitlement, but are you that unaware of its existence or how it looks and works, even though you have spent your life in India?

'Call Me Bae' Season 1 Review - Final Thoughts

If you're looking for something breezy and entertaining with just a hint of social commentary, Call Me Bae might just be worth a watch—just don't expect to be too moved or challenged by what you find. Ananya Panday shines in a role tailor-made for her, and the show's a glossy, light-hearted romp through a world of excess, yet it lacks the substance to make a lasting impact. The first season of Call Me Bae is streaming on Prime Video.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 06, 2024 12:01 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).