Amazon Prime Series: Fatima, Yann Yann, Meiyang and Chitrangada shine in Modern Love Stories Mumbai

Modern Love Mumbai on Amazon Prime Video is a collection of varied love stories that play out with Mumbai, food and songs as its backdrop. The love stories range from age no bar, gender no bar, caste no bar to community no bar. The dishes range from mutton curry to Kashmiri Kava, to stir fry eggplant, to cutting chai, to dim sums, to cupcakes. The overall series is a mixed bag with some episodes exceedingly better than the others.

S1: Raat Rani

Fatima Sana Shaikh rocks as Lalzari whose husband Lutfi has just dumped her. It’s a brilliant and spunky solo act one which you won’t be tired of watching again and again. The efforts she makes to fight on with her life, learn to cycle on Mumbai roads, and refuse to let circumstances bully her is something many viewers will relate to. Fatima is terrific as you feel for her every minute of this episode and most definitely when she utters ‘Lutfiiii’ .. it’s not just a name she is calling, it’s her world she is calling up. 5/5

S2: Baai

Pratik Gandhi’s gay love story is extremely slow and boring with many loose ends. The riots flashback doesn’t fit into the story aside from preaching a line that ‘all bloodthirsty rioters can go away when bribed’ (which I doubt). The story does have some bright spots on hypocrisy shown by society, but random songs popping up every 5mins and an overall predictable script let it down. 2/5

S3: Mumbai Dragon

Malaysian Actress Yann Yann Yeo gives probably the best performance in a short story you will see for a long long time. Aided by actors Meiyang Chang, Wamiqa Gabbi, Anurag Kashyap cameo and director Vishal Bharadwaj, this one is a terrific story worth watching multiple times. I had recently posted that IPL is one industry where overseas talent is desperate to come to India and work; in recent years Indian Cinema is also reaching that sphere. There are many subplots even within this story – how Chicken Sweet Corn Soup originated (do note it is only available in India); Meiyang Chang reminds us that he was an Indian Idol talent with a beautiful song ‘Raat Bhar’ – do listen to its full version on YouTube. But the stage belongs to Yann Yann Yeo – a Bollywood mother who doesn’t want her son to marry outside her community. Must watch multiple times 5/5.

S4: My Beautiful Wrinkles

A young boy’s infatuation and fantasy for 60+ Sarika is another slow boring story which fails to convince. For a start, the four-decade age gap is too much to believe, and I wish a Rukhsar or a Sakshi Tanwar was cast instead. Then again there is not much happening to keep one engaged either in romance, food or music. 1/5

S5: I love Thane

Masaba Gupta (clearly the weakest actor of this series) and a wasted Ritwik Bhowmik make a friendship story that is slow, boring, and directionless. The only memory I have is it preaches about parks not being given importance in Mumbai. 2/5.

S6: Cutting Chai

Chitrangada Singh as the harrowed housewife who aspires to be a writer but misses the support of her busy husband Arshad Warsi is a good ending to the series. The box office draw is obviously the dusky, sultry Chitrangada and the story moves to an eye-opening ending that every couple will relate to. That, in our urge to find flaws in our partners we often, and almost always, fail to see the positives and the bright side that was the reason why we chose that partner in the first place. The story also focuses on reflections one makes ‘what if that day I hadn’t met him and instead.’ Great watch. 3.5/5