Rating: 2/5

Cast: R Madhavan, Surveen Chawla

My reason to sit and watch the new Netflix series Decoupled was my admiration for the lead actors and my curiosity about the theme that the series tries to explore. But much to my disappointment, the series shattered all my expectations right from episode one. Decoupled is such a pointless and ignorant series that not even the acclaimed talents of Surveen Chawla and R Madhavan could save it.

Arya Iyer is a misanthropic author while his wife Shruti is a passionate entrepreneur. They are stuck in an unhappy marriage and are waiting for the right time to tell their daughter about their separation. Though the premise of the series sounds interesting, the writing of the show does not live up to our expectations. We know they are unhappy in the marriage (because they keep saying that to each other every ten minutes as if trying to convince themselves) but we don’t know why. Hence it is difficult to comprehend the emotions that they go through.

We see them get jealous when either of them is out there with another person. But why is that? Do they still have feelings for each other? Or is it because they don’t want to see the other person happy while they are still struggling to find what they want in life? No clarity for such incidents has been given in the series. All the eight episodes of the show take us nowhere and just happen for the sake of it. The show fails to arrive at a point.

Arya played Madhavan is the second best-selling author (first being Chetan Bhagat of course) in India. He seems to be annoyed by the most irrelevant of things in society and shares his unsolicited piece of wisdom in all the wrong places, which in turn, makes him the most annoying one at times.

Surveen Chawla tries her best to pull off Shruti but the role just does not match up with her standards. I hope she gets much better roles in the future, something that deserves her in the first place.

For obvious reasons, Madhavan and Surveen Chawla just did not hit off the chemistry that well. The age difference between the two seemed too visible and at times, even uncanny.

The series tries so hard to make a mockery of the upper-class prejudices and practices but on the contrary, the show itself becomes the part of the very thing it tries to lampoon. With some body-shaming and classist jokes, Decoupled’s desperate attempt to be funny falters pathetically.

Chetan Bhagat, who pops in and out throughout the show, was the only one that offers some chuckles in Decoupled. The rivalry between the best-selling author (Chetan Bhagat) and the second best-selling author (Arya Iyer) seemed more interesting than the impending rivalry of the couple in question.

Read: Every Chetan Bhagat novel adapted into a movie

Decoupled is a tale of modern marriage done wrong, a possibly exciting idea wasted. This was Netflix India’s derail from the usual thriller-dark-shaded series. But looks like it did not serve the purpose. While Decoupled did end with a hint for the second season, I hope there isn’t one.

Image Courtesy: YouTube