BOTTOM LINE: Boring Drama, With The Most Unlikeable Lead Character Ever
Rating
3.5 / 10
Skin N Swear
Love-Making Scenes, Liberal Use of Cuss Words
Comedy, Drama
What Is the Story About?
SonyLIV’s latest show ‘Good Bad Girl’ is centred on Maya Ahuja (Samridhi Dewan), a compulsive liar and morally bereft lawyer. The narrative shows how the honest young girl Bulbul grows up to become the lying, scheming, manipulative Maya, who runs circles around boss Zaina (Gul Panag), co-worker Sahil (Vaibhav Raj Gupta), on-off boyfriend Prithvi (Zain Khan Durrani) and consulting doctor Punit (Soham Majumdar).
Good Bad Girl is created by Vikas Bahl and Chaitally Parmar, written by Tahira Nath and Nikhil Arora, and directed by Abhishek Sengupta.
Performances?
Samridhi Dewan‘s on-screen character, Maya Ahuja, is one of the most unlikeable lead characters to hit the screen ever; yet, Samridhi excels in it. Her facial expressions are to die for, her body language is perfectly on point, and her performance is terrific. Gul Panag is efficiency personified, as always.
Vaibhav Raj Gupta is a revelation as Sahil, what with his ‘Gullak’ claim to fame. Zain Khan Durrani is easy on the eyes; his performance is competent too. Sheeba Chaddha delivers another flawless performance in yet another mother role — it’s high time filmmakers give this uber-talented lady a role worthy enough to match upto her phenomenal acting skills. The rest of the cast lends adequate support.
Analysis
Good Bad Girl is the kind of show that promises a lot on paper, but leaves a bad taste in the mouth when actually executed. The essentially flawed female protagonist — done to death in contemporary shows such as Fleabag, Girls, Big Little Lies and more of the ilk — is even more flawed and unlikeable in Good Bad Girl. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that Good Bad Girl’s Maya Ahuja is the most unlikeable female lead ever in Indian OTT.
Maya Ahuja lies, schemes and maneuvers the truth as a means to her ends. As she says right at the beginning of the show, “sach ko marodna aana chahiye”, to achieve success in the highly competitive world of today. And her sassy, devil-may-care attitude does entertain – but only in the very beginning. A mere one episode into the series, the basic premise of the story starts to feel tedious, overdrawn and irritating. We’re soon weary of the shenanigans of Maya Ahuja.
Even worse, the writers cheaply resort to the tactic of her masquerading as a cancer patient, who thinks nothing of cashing in on the resulting attention and pampering showered on her. Heck, they even turn Maya Ahuja into a high-visibility cancer influencer. The plot device is extremely insensitive and inconsiderate to real cancer survivors. Not just that, it soon starts to get on the viewer’s nerves.
The constant flitting of the narrative between past and present doesn’t help matters at all. On the contrary, it proves to be distractive and confusing, especially the college bits when Maya is better known as Mayo. Incidentally, Mayo’s phone sex hustle is a barely interesting subplot, intended only to show off the sassiness of the protagonist. Instead, it turns out to be a big bore.
That Samridhi Dewan outshines every other character in the series is commendable, given the unpleasantness of the role she essays. Good Bad Girl is top notch in every other department – superior production values, stellar casting, good dialogues, and everything else. It’s a pity the plot and screenplay – the most significant elements of any content – are a disaster.
Music and Other Departments?
Sahej Shrivastava and Sarvesh Bakshi’s background score is well-suited to the proceedings on screen. Kunal Walve’s editing is efficient. Akash Agrawal’s cinematography is fine, nothing much to write home about.
Highlights?
Samridhi Dewan’s performance
Drawbacks?
Pathetic storyline
Insensitive primary plot
Unlikeable lead protagonist
Contrived and artificial series
Did I Enjoy It?
No
Will You Recommend It?
No
Good Bad Girl Series Review by Binged Bureau
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