SOFT STORY

Saumya Bhardwaj

What’s too tough about female bonding? Why can’t they get it right? And for the umpteenth time, it’s not just about getting drunk and talking about sex — that’s the pole star to which this group inadvertently steers itself to.

The four have returned, despite a disastrous first season. Bravado comes in all shapes and forms, and well season 2 of Four More Shots Please does have an inherent brazenness to it, which at times seems unreasonable. The first season had ended with a big blowout between the four. A hysterical phone call from Siddhi — ‘the baby of the group’ and voila, the gang is back together. Added to the cringe-fest is this undeniable feeling of deja-vu, that we have seen all this somewhere, someplace— Sex and the City, Marvellous Mrs Maisel, Veere di Wedding, The Mindy Project, Little Women — the list is endless.

The four catch each other up on what went on in their lives. Damini Rizvi Roy (Sayani Gupta) is working on a book, Anjana Menon (Kirti Kulhari) is in a relationship with a young

man, Umang (Bani J) is handling rejection at the hands of her former lover, actor Samara Kapoor (Lisa Ray) and Siddhi (Maanvi Gagroo) has been backpacking in Europe at her parents’ expense. The season focuses on the protagonists resolving their respective problems, and because this is a ‘pretty’ show with ‘pretty’ women who are always so decked up, we will only get a quick fix solution to everything. Forget nuance, when you can montage your way out of everything.

Anjana, who is a successful corporate lawyer, gets a new boss, and she suddenly is at the receiving end of many ‘women jokes,’ and a ‘that time of the month’ remark is also slipped in. With an angry rant against misogyny, Anjana quits. It’s hard to believe that this was the first time that Anjana had encountered misogyny and casual sexism at her workplace. In spite of the latest ‘woke’ work culture and the #Metoo movement

workplace harassment is still a very tangible way of life for many women. What does Anjana do about it? Nothing. She quits.

Retro fitted. That’s a word that comes a lot to mind when we see the second season. It feels that everything that you saw was trending on Twitter last year, has been custom made to fit the show’s still meandering premise. Damini’s book is on the murder of a ‘Judge Damodaran’ – does the real-life murder of Judge Loya ring a bell? Additionally, a comment is made on the ‘current political scenario,’ as no publisher is ready to publish her book as it’s ‘too dangerous.’ It all spit balls into Damini being called an ‘anti-national’ and a ‘presstitute’ at a confrontation at a lit fest. The how a book on the murder of a judge is deemed ‘anti-national’, we are never told.

Siddhi, who is on a mission to find herself, tries her hand at stand-up comedy. It triggers strong flashbacks of season one of Marvellous Mrs Maisel, where Midge goes head to head with Randall, another stand-up comic, and they pull a gag on Hitler and the Reichstag. While the Golden Globe and Emmy award-winning show has its own problems where white privilege is concerned, but here privilege is used as a punchline. “Par main toh privileged hun naa… material kahan se aayega,” says Siddhi.

OF THE FANTASTICAL AND BRAZENNESS MENTIONED EARLIER, FOUR MORE SHOTS PLEASE SEASON 2 WORKS IN AN IDEALIST WAY.