Review: BHAAG BEANIE BHAAG Is Fun But Shaky, Carried By Swara Bhaskar

Swara Bhaskar is one of those Bollywood actresses whose projects I’ll always look out for. Especially when she has the balls to do roles like the one in Veere Di Wedding; a performance that has earned my life-long loyalty. So when she’s in her own Netflix comedy series, I’m so there! So here’s my Spoiler-free Bhaag Beanie Bhaag review. 

Bhaag Beanie Bhaag Review Looks Familiar?

The Netflix original series Bhaag Beanie Bhaag is all about Bhaskar’s Beanie. Beanie is the usual middle-class young girl with a career, a caring boyfriend, loving parents and a cool supportive best friend. But interestingly, like many South Asians, she also has the unfulfilled passion of creativity that she’s never had the guts to seriously pursue. The desire to be a stand up comic. Her simple and content life gets disturbed when her boyfriend proposes, and she has to face the possibility of giving up her freedom, but most importantly, her stand-up career. 

Now, let’s address the big Baahubali-style Elephant in the room. Bhaag Beanie Bhaag’s premise of a young woman finding freedom and independence from her hot mess of a life in a stand-up career is very familiar. It’s very much like the premise of Amazon Prime Video’s Emmy Award-winning hit, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. But fortunately, besides the stand-up comic premise and a failed relationship, the sequence of events, morals, and setting differ themselves from one another enough for this to be kind of original.

Bhaskar Is Charming And Carries The Entire Show

Bhaskar is an actress who can walk in both worlds of serious dramatic roles, and also fun and bubbly comedy as well. Bhaag Beanie Bhaag is very much supported by her performance and eagerness. Bhaskar plays the role of Beanie with such assurance when needed, but also quick insecurity when the story calls for it as well. Not to mention some hilarious neorotic moments. 

My Bhaag Beanie Bhaag review focuses more on the fact that, while the show is fun, it’s writing is a little messy. As a series, the new Netflix show is kind of all over the place. Some scenes are very cringey, like many of the stand-up bits that Beanie performs. But they’re unintentionally so. Some of the inspiring messages feel forced and artificial. Whereas other aspects of the story are just plain dull. But through it all, it’s honestly Bhaskar that carries the whole thing. Not to mention some great supporting side stories and characters bolster her awesome performance.

Bhaag Beanie Bhaag’s Supporting Cast Is Super Interesting

Throughout the whole thing, Beanie’s mom, played by Mona Ambegonkar, is incredibly supportive. It’s super refreshing to see that in a story that could have easily gone the cliched route of everyone compounding onto Beanie’s existing problems. I especially loved the back and forth between the parents trying to figure out their daughter’s chances for success in this career, based on if she’s funny or not. I also liked the overall premise of the story that a young Indian woman can throw away the conventionally accepted good marriage, rich husband, etc, for the sake of something frivolous like a comedy career. And the fact that the show doesn’t condescend to the comedy career was also a little refreshing. The banter between Beanie’s best friend Kapi (Dolly Singh) and her comic mentor (Ravi Patel) is also pretty in-step with the comedy.

Honorable mentions have to go to Beanie’s dad (Girish Kulkarni) who is hilarious in a role that is expectedly eccentric as he freaks out about his daughter’s future. But he does it in more of a funny and harmless way, instead of regressive or misogynistic. Overall Bhaag Beanie Bhaag is a fun little show, that suffers from an unfamiliarity with the episode storytelling format.

Bhaag Beanie Bhaag is now streaming on Netflix. 

Did you enjoy Bhaskar in her new comedy series? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter @theshahshahid. 

Featured image via Netflix.