Cast: Pooja Bhatt, Zoya Hussain, Lovleen Misra, Mukul Chadda, Raima Sen, Dalai, Tenzin Lhakyila, Avantika Vandanapu, Aneet Padda, Akshita Sood, Afrah Sayed, Vidushi
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Creator: Nitya Mehra
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Streaming On: Amazon Prime Video
Language: Hinglish with Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada dubbings; Subtitles in 15 languages
Runtime: 7 episodes of 45 – 50 minutes each
There have been unnecessary stories about women identifying with freedom and independence in whatever they want. There have been tales about locker room boys talk. There also have been tales about adulting. But what happens when a bunch of teenage girls with all the confused thoughts about s*x, gender, equality, male-female dynamics, and class divide happen to be locked in a dormitory of a boarding school together? They make a mantra to live – Big Girls Don’t Cry, which they call BGDC, to obviously look cool and at par with the Gen Z lingo. But do they not cry throughout their journey?
Well, a bunch of five girls have united since childhood in Vandana Valley Girls School. While a sixth entry to this group helps them battle their problems with more efficacy, three other girls in the story provide additional momentum whenever the story starts taking a lull. Additionally, three boys try to balance the equilibrium because, let us face it: men and women have to co-exist. That is the bottom line! But we’ll come to that part later.
These bunch of girls are under the strict supervision of Dean Anita Verma, played by Pooja Bhatt, and a more strict warden, Ms Jaenette (Loveleen Mishra), who is trying to shape these girls into responsible and educated women. But disruption peaks when a drama teacher, an alumnus of the boarding school, Ms. Aliya Lamba, played by Zoya Hussain, enters and appreciates the freedom of thought in the most problematic girl of the school – Dia Malik (Akshita Sood).
Meanwhile, the main set of girls have their individual set of problems they are dealing with in their disguised lives where they swear by friendships and stick by each other but do not have the guts and courage to share their inner worlds because they are too naive to understand real friendships. They are too immature to understand that bonds go beyond sharing a plate of chowmein, being a prank-saver, mediating between crushes, and more! They are too impulsive to understand that being a rebel cannot always be the problem to a solution.
These set of girls have their inner demons in their personal lives. Someone is burdened with taking the legacy of their royal blood forward; someone is trapped between a bickering yet filthy-rich set of parents hating each other but sticking together for the sake of their child. Some feel the pressure of having a slightly bigger body and feel the only solution is losing their virginity and earning a cool chic tag, while some struggle with being the misfit coming from the lower economic strata amongst the upper financial group. Some are exploring their affection towards the same gender but are scared to admit it, while some are scared of being a minority in a majority country!
Yes, this story, spread over 7 long episodes, caters to such a wide range of problems and offers an insightful journey of each girl’s struggle, her journey of making mistakes while finding a solution to these struggles. But is their journey relatable and worth your six hours? You’ll decide for yourself once we break down their journeys and what works and what doesn’t work for Big Girls Don’t Cry.
The show very strongly and courageously sticks to the title Big Girls Don’t Cry until they break down together and then individually while they fall apart. The show beautifully transcends the journey of a group, staying strong together, fighting for each other, and solving each other’s issues, to their individual fights. Then comes the crying part. Mind you, once they break down, you want to give them a hug and hold them tight, and tell them you might feel lonely, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Or just give them a hug and let them not cry alone! The individual narratives work brilliantly for the web series. Moreover, the entire set of 9 girls and their problems never make you feel burdened. Moreover, all of their backstories are beautifully done.
Written by Sudhanshu Saria, the biggest take of this web series is, indeed, its simplistic writing. It never preaches, never dictates, never directs, nor does it seek sympathy. Despite talking about women and their issues, it never victimizes them. It lets them live their journeys, struggles through their mistakes, and penalizes them for their mistakes, and this keeps the story as believable and real as possible. Young girls and their confusion hit them in just the right amount, and directors Nitya Mehra, Karan Kapadia, Kopal Naithani, and Sudhanshu Saria deserve all the applause for this. Prashansa Varma’s dialogues do not offer any drama, and the easiest and most common conversations done with just the right amount of heavy words make it clap-worthy!
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You cannot just pick one girl and call her the star of this web series. Probably, the stars of this web series might be acting coaches who have trained this bunch of young girls so right that none of them overdoes their part. All of them shine bright, putting together a beautiful rainbow. Tenzin Lhakyila plays JC, a royal princess from Nepal. Probably the most mature one in the group. But she has to pay for being mature and hide her vulnerabilities. Aneet Panda plays Roohi, the girl from a rich family who tries to find a family in her best friend but struggles to overcompensate for her loyalty! Afrah Sayed, playing Noor Hassan, plays the perfect overburdened girl who aspires way too much for her age. But she gets shredded with her aspirations only to rise like a phoenix. Avantika Vandanapu plays Ludo, and just like her name, she gets confused between a co-player and an opponent. She might put winning as her priority, and winning at any cost suffocates her. Dalai, as Anandita Rawat, aka Pluggy, is the underdog playing the wannabe erotic writer, but she shines and grows slowly and steadily. Vidushi as Priya Yadav is a discovery, and right from the first scene, she tries to steal the plot, making it all about herself.
Manjoree Kar, Dia Malik, and Himanshi Pandey provide excessive subplots despite six main stories running but still grabbing an equal amount of attention, which makes you want to pat their backs for worthy scene-stealing performances. Not to forget, Bodhisattva Sharma, as the friend in need, and Aditya Raj, as the boyfriend in need, also offer strong performances in their little but strong narratives. I mean, what is a woman’s world without a man, right?
Another star of this web series is the apt musical pieces from a brilliant set of artists. Right from the peppy and sassy title track by Amit Trivedi, Anvitaa Dutt & Maalavika Manoj to the high-spirited Bhool Jaa by Rahul Pais, Nariman Khambata & Anubha Kaul & Parinda by Rahul Pais, Nariman Khambata & Maalavika Manoj. Shashwat Sachdev & Sanjith Hegde’s Pehli Sharam is a cute and simple offering that works and blends beautifully with the narrative. Kanishk Seth, Hussain Haidry & Hanita Bhambri, and Devashri Manohar’s Ekla Chalo Re build up well but don’t live up to the plot as well as the others!
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The biggest downhill comes with all the adults in the show who are struggling and do not seem to reach anywhere. While the kids are learning through their mistakes and adulting right, these groups of adults are so aimless and frivolous that they do not add up. While this might have been done intentionally to keep the story focussed on the kids who are trying to find solutions and pave their own paths block by block, it still seems the adults look useless in their journeys in an institution as important as a boarding school.
All the adults in this web series are plainly unimpressive and un-offering. Despite being surrounded by a bunch of teenagers, none of them, except for the drama teacher, tries to offer any insight or share any experience that might ease down the kids and their problems!
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Big Girls Don’t Cry finally screams out loud that Big Girls Can Do Whatever The F*ck They Want. In an episode, they argue whether the path to victory matters as they weigh the right and the wrong and finally leave it to the moment to decide after they win. These girls know that winning is the goal. But an adult rightfully guiding them and easing out their way to adulting and weighing right and wrong would have been such a great combination to watch.
There is an episode that offers the dilemma between an adult trying to co-exist with the unfair society, bending down to the inequalities, and surrendering to the patriarchy while a spirited youth trying to be a rebel and sticking to their morals and ethics not knowing that the world is far off from speeches and poems, and the reality stings. Hopefully, the debate could have been elaborated in a better way rather than dropping it unceremoniously without a conclusion. But maybe the cliffhanger drops a scope to develop into a sequel where these newly-turned adults finally face another set of problems and learn more about the world when economics, education, and ethics are at war every day. Will they be prepared well by the Vandana Valley Girls School to face these day-to-day dilemmas and choose between the wrong and the less wrong? Well, we are not too sure.
3.5 stars for a well-knit and simple yet engaging story.
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