Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
Award winning writer Juhi Chaturvedi (Piku) and Director Tanuja Chandra (Qarib Qarib Singlle) manage to mess up web series Hush Hush. What happened?!
I had been eagerly waiting for Amazon Prime’s web series, Hush Hush (2022) to release this month for reasons ranging from it being promoted as a female centric show and it marking the comeback of promising actors like Juhi Chawla and Soha Ali Khan.
However, the seven episode long mystery turned out to be a disappointment.
It was a dragged and exaggerated show that could neither pass as a cop drama like the films of the Mardaani franchise (2014-2019) nor a female buddy series like Four More Shots Please! (2019-Present) nor a thriller like Kahaani (2012).
Since it completely misses its point when it comes to building an engaging suspense and delivering a strong social message, here are 5 reasons (and a lament) behind the series being completely unwatchable.
*A few spoilers alert
The series begins with two children talking to each other in Bengali and suddenly takes a shift to completely random dialogue exchanges between different characters we know nothing about, all being carried out in an extremely non-contextual manner.
When the next scene comes on, the viewers are left wondering who those children were and why they were even introduced in the first scene. One gets some clarity about who’s who only halfway through the series, but even then a lot of conversations between the characters seem overstretched.
In one scene, an inspector is shown questioning a character named Meera (Ayesha Jhulka) about the crimes enabled by her and all the responses given by her seem to be in riddles. Meera’s inconclusive answers are followed by a recollection before which she talks about her friend of hers paying her a visit. However, her friend, Ishi (Juhi Chawla) doesn’t enter the scene for another ten minutes. This only causes a feeling of impatience in the viewers, but again, nothing can be fast forwarded because the makers of the series attempted to create a mystery in which every dialogue needs to be heard.
The narration seems unclear throughout the series and it is difficult to understand what sequence the makers are trying to follow. Dialogues suggesting past recollections are unsymmetrically followed by scenes that don’t support the previous ones. Furthermore, there are random shifts from one scene to the other without any proper reasoning.
Thus, by the time the series comes to an end, the viewer is left confused about why it had started with two little girls, if both of them weren’t even the main focus in the story, even later?
My question is this: if the makers wanted to create a mystery, then why was there so much backstory given about all the supporting characters? Why is it important for the viewer to know that Dolly has a nagging mother-in-law, Saiba left her journalism career and Zaira is a bossy fashion designer?
The reason Made In Heaven (2019-Present) and Paatal Lok (2020) followed different styles of narration was because they had distinct genres, target audiences, and the impact they wished to create on the viewers. If the makers of Hush Hush were trying to create a Paatal Lok, then trying to fit Made In Heaven into it only led to a disappointing creation.
Who is telling the story and why is their perspective necessary for the viewer? If Ishi (Juhi Chawla) has invited a man over to her place to discuss business and that is important for the plot, why is it relevant for anyone to know that she’d had a fight with Saiba (Soha Ali Khan) just before the man parked his car in her garage? In that scene, the point of view aimlessly shifts from Ishi’s to Saiba’s to Zaira’s (Shahana Goswami).
In multiple such scenes, it is impossible to understand why it is needed for one to hear the story that Dolly’s (Kritika Kamra) father-in-law’s mother had told him when he was a child, or why we need to watch Geeta (Karishma Tanna) argue with her mother about her work.
There are numerous characters in the series who simply seem to be added in it to increase the running time of each episode.
One such character is that of a man who follows Saiba and her family for multiple episodes for a reason known only to the makers. His chapter gets over when he is killed eventually. But, then, if he had to get killed, why was he given so much screen time? Also, who was he and why was he following Saiba?
Another tangential subplot involves Saiba’s son, Zayn, getting obsessed with the death of one of the main characters…he’s a child! Even that doesn’t add any value to the larger storyline.
Geeta speaks in an accent that is neither Haryanvi nor Punjabi nor Rajasthani. There are times when she speaks Hindi like a Delhi-ite and right after that, one comes to know that she is definitely a Mumbaikar. She tries really hard to talk like Chandramukhi Chautala from FIR (2006-2015) and Shivani Shivaji Roy from Mardaani (2014), but fails miserably.
Why couldn’t the makers teach her a proper accent or simply caste someone else who could do justice to her character?
Any Bollywood buff would any day applaud Juhi Chaturvedi for the masterpieces she breathed life into. And it is difficult to digest the fact that someone who wrote the screenplay for films like Vicky Donor (2012), Piku (2015) and the dialogues for Gulabo Sitabo (2020) could have anything to do with Hush Hush.
Let’s also not forget that even the director of the series, Tanuja Chandra has previously done a good job directing films like Qarib Qarib Singlle (2017). Thus, how did this powerful duo go so drastically wrong this time?
A dysgraphic writer who spends most of their time watching (and thinking about) Bollywood films. read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
People say that women are the greatest enemies of women. I vehemently disagree. It is the patriarchal mindset that makes women believe in the wrong ideology.
The entire world celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8, 2024. It should be a joyful day, but unfortunately, not all women are entitled to this privilege, as violence against women is at its peak. The experience of oppression pushes many women to choose freedom. As far as patriotism is concerned, feminism is not a cup of tea in this society.
What happens when a woman decides to stand up for herself? Does this world easily accept the decisions of women in this society? What inspires them to be free of the clutches of the oppression that women have faced for ages? Most of the time, women do not get the chance to decide for themselves. Their lives are always at the mercy of someone, which can be their parents, siblings, husband, or children.
In some cases, women do not feel the need to make any decisions. They are taught to obey the patriarchal system, which makes them believe that they are right. In my family, I was never taught to make decisions on my own. It was always my parents who bought dresses and all that I needed.
14 years after her last feature film Dhobi Ghat, storyteller extraordinaire comes up with her new film, Laapataa Ladies, a must watch.
*Some spoilers alert*
Every religion around the world dictates terms to women. The onus is always on women to be ‘modest’ and cover their faces and bodies so men can’t be “tempted”, rather than on men to keep their eyes where they belong and behave like civilized beings. So much so that even rape has been excused on the grounds of women eating chowmein or ‘men will be men’. I think the best Hindi movie retort to this unwanted advice on ‘akeli ladki khuli tijori ki tarah hoti hai’ (an alone woman is like an open jewellery box) came from Geet in Jab We Met – Kya aap gyan dene ke paise lete hain kyonki chillar nahin hain mere paas.
The premise of Laapataa Ladies is beautifully simple – two brides clad in the ghunghat that covers their identity get mixed up on a train. Within this Russian Doll, you get a comedy of errors, a story of getting lost, a commentary on patriarchy’s attitude towards women, a mystery, and a tale of finding oneself, all in one. Done with a mostly light touch that has you laughing and nodding along.
Please enter your email address