New Delhi

In Bella Chowdhary’s world, there’s no such thing as too many bags and in a world of fakes, she is on a path to become a Birkin. But it’s a path that she hasn’t chosen for herself, rather, a tragedy has led her there. 

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Bella AKA Bae (Ananya Panday) was born with a golden spoon in a Delhi-based wealthy family. Upon the brink of losing their wealth, the family hacks Bae’s love story with a business tycoon Agastya Chowdhary (Vihaan Samat). But everything that glitters is not gold. She may have all the luxuries one can ever wish for, but none of them fulfilling enough to help her cope with her loneliness. Her world comes crashing down when a rather private moment becomes a public affair.

Both her families disown her and the scandal leaves her stranded - until she begins to find her own hat. Bella must now navigate a life without the prestigious privileges that she is known to live with or in other words, learn to live like a middle-class girl in Mumbai. 

Call Me Bae lands the aesthetics

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Created by Ishita Moitra and co-written by Samina Motlekar and Rohit Nair, Call Me Bae has been helmed by Collin D Cunha. First things first, it’s a visually stunning series, where apt attention has been paid to sets and Bae’s costumes. The aesthetic aspects are all in place with the addition of viral-worthy songs. But the story never fully feels convincing. It’s partly because it all seems extremely easy for Bae -or if she would’ve put it, the struggles aren’t struggling at all.

Transitioning to Mumbai, bumping into new people, finding a home, landing a job, and even getting her first big breaking story as a journalist - it all seems too easy and if not a golden spoon, there’s still a platter for Bae. 

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The show spoofs the extravagant world of celebrity weddings with a scene inspired by Kiara Advani and Sidharth Malhotra’s wedding, scatters references of social media fame (cue a random scene featuring Orry) and downfall, spills prominent names like it’s no big deal. At one point, Bae is angry with her husband for picking a meeting with Elon Musk over spending time with her.

The wealthy parodical world that’s built in the beginning is silly but comical, and you understand why. It’s sharp writing with solid meta references thrown all around, including Panday and Siddhant Chaturvedi’s infamous ‘struggle’ exchange and several nods to Kareena Kapoor Khan’s Poo. But it’s the world that comes after that doesn’t fully feel authentic. Perhaps a little less froth and more depth would have helped. 

What works is Ananya Panday as Bae

What does work for Call Me Bae is Ananya Panday. Panday holds the show together with her charming performance. Even as you can spot glimpses of Alexis Rose from Schitt’s Creek, Emily from Emily In Paris and Two Broke Girls in both her performance and the storyline, Panday’s persona and dialogue delivery manage to work. It also works in her favour that her heiress-to-hustler character is the only one that’s fully fleshed out, wherein her costumes, too, play a pivotal role in storytelling. 

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The series introduces viewers to ‘Behen-code’ - a promise that’s older than The Da Vinci Code and stronger than brocode with the help of Bae’s new-found friends, Saira Ali (Muskkaan Jaferi) and Tammarrah Pawwarh (Niharika Lyra Dutt) and both do justice to their parts. Vir Das, who plays the role of TRP-greedy TV anchor Satyajit Sen, is certainly having fun. Lisa Mishra essays the role of his show’s producer and girlfriend Harleen. While the two deliver decent performances, one wishes their roles were layered. The minute glimpses of Sen and Harleen’s personal life had ample scope of further character development.

Watch Call Me Bae trailer here:

Call Me Bae also stars Varun Sood as Prince, Vihaan Samat as Agastya, Gurfateh Pirzada as Neel N, and Mini Mathur as Bae’s mother Gayatri but sadly, none of them get enough space to play around. 

Also read: Top filmmakers Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra in talks to launch SRK's son Aryan Khan?

The intent and ambition are right, but the execution not so much. Call Me Bae is a self-aware show but it doesn’t scratch beneath the surface. Even when it sets out to explore darker themes, both of which are timely and if well executed, could've had a better impact. Overall, style trumps substance in the story. What essentially works for rich-person-turns-poor tropes is the character evolution, remember Annie Murphy’s Alexis Rose’s arc from Schitt’s Creek? And while Bae does evolve through the six-episode series, it’s not satisfying enough.