The ‘Ba***ds of Bollywood‘ series review: Not bad at all, Aryan Khan!

Social media might have bridged the distance between Bollywood stars and the common man, but the curiosity of fans and trolls to look at the view behind the camera remains unsatiated. Over the years, directors Farah Khan, Zoya Akhtar, and Karan Johar have used their access to inside stories to whet this appetite by creating pieces of entertaining cinema and peeping talk shows.

Taking this ‘silsila’ forward, debutant Aryan Khan pulls back the curtains and brews an intoxicating concoction of gossip, news, and salacious details in between to mount a sharp take on the movie mafia, as Karan describes Bollywood biggies in the series, and their shenanigans and hypocrisy.

Aryan uses his access to his father’s friends and colleagues not to paint a tribute, but to create subversive graffiti. He roasts his father’s friends, plays with their image, spoofs his detractors, and in the end gives the series a climactic twist, a quirk of fate that would make Manmohan Desai proud. The self-awareness of the insider doesn’t become frictional in the rollercoaster ride, and it is what separates Ba***ds of Bollywood from Tees Maar Khan of yore, giving it more heft than Om Shanti Om and more colour than Luck By Chance. When the asterisks in Ba***ds give way to the letters, the spirit of the series shines through.

Tantalisingly perched on the boundary wall between fact and fiction, the seven-episode series follows the journey of an outsider, Aasman Singh (Lakshya), from Delhi to stardom in Bollywood. Moving in the fast lane, Aryan ticks the boxes of nepotism, predatory producers, underworld, paid media, drugs, and ephemerality of fame in a language that is profane, but the emotion it carries is deep and relatable. There is an easy layer of satire and secular values beneath the style and shimmer.

The confident Aasman reminds one of a young Shah Rukh Khan with his cheeky attitude, witty repartees, and the ability to take the villain’s punches. The endearing bond between Aasman and a perky Pervaiz (Raghav Juyal) is the driving force of the series, and the chemistry between Lakshya and Karishma (Sahher Bamba) provides the hormonal rush. Together with Anya Singh, as the perky manager of Aasman, the age-appropriate, talented cast makes even the predictable portions engrossing.

Shah Rukh Khan in ‘The B***ds of Bollywood’.
| Photo Credit:
Netflix

Addressing a paying public that is not as much interested in the craft of the brooding actors as it is in crafty attitudes of movie moguls doing everything to save their brood, Bobby Deol emerges as the surprise package of the series.

After a long time, he finds his natural range and delivers a power-packed punch as the reigning star, Ajay Talwar, who doesn’t want his daughter, Karishma, to be launched opposite an outsider. Mona Singh is more than just the sweet mother of the aspiring star, and Manish Choudhary doesn’t let the haughty, hamming producer become a cardboard cutout.

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Manoj Pahwa is reassuring as ever as the gutsy uncle who didn’t get his due from the industry. The cameos by Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, S.S. Rajamouli, Ranveer Singh, Arshad Warsi, and Shah Rukh are coded into the storyline, and Anirudh Ravichander and Shashwat Sachdev create a groovy score that oscillates between heady and rowdy. Time to howl, Ghafoor!

B***ds of Bollywood is currently streaming on Netflix