Siddhi, Damini, Umang and Anjana –the fabulously flawed women are back! A little more than a year later after we first met them, the warm familiarity and the infectious joie de vivre help us form an instant connect again -all positive signs while welcoming a new season. Season 2 of Four More Shots Please! starts four months after what ensued in the lives of our 4 women protagonists.
Umang’s dramatic coming out to her family, Sidhhi’s internet secret that put her relationship with her parents in jeopardy, Damini still reeling under how her website can be taken away from her and Anjana trying to make peace with her ex-husband and his wife. A quick recap later the first episode begins with Siddhi (Maanvi Gagroo) making a distress call to Umang (Bani J) from Istanbul. The girls apparently have had a fallout but a reunion is engineered quickly and enter headlong into their lives.
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Directed by Nupur Asthana, written by Devika Bhagat, with dialogues by Ishita Moitra and shot by Neha Parti Matiyani, it is possible that since the cast and crew is dominated by women, so it organically lends this show a refreshing and delightfully irreverent take on gender, love and companionship.
It’s both ambitious and hugely radical how the show chooses to “view” its women. Their frailty and strength are both equally enticing.
Siddhi is confused about what she wants from life, Anjana (Kirti Kulhari) admits to being lonely, Damini (Sayani Gupta) admits to being scared and Umang at times can't help but be overwhelmed by all that is happening and yet they aren't our typical damsels in distress waiting for the men to save them. Men, there are aplenty, and good looks are never in short supply here but as capable adult consenting women, they are never bereft of agency.
Back to the good looking men now. They are lavishly sprinkled in the show as they inhabit the lives of our female protagonists. Most reprise their roles from the previous season like Pratiek Babbar, Milind Soman, Rajeev Siddhartha and Neil Bhoopalam. But this latest instalment has a sufficient dose of Sameer Kochhar and Prabal Punjabi as well. The men in resplendent shades of grey bring out the intricacies of modern-day relationships and the many temptations and challenges one faces.
While comparisons are always tough, Four More Shots Please! season 2 is better than its predecessor in terms of pace and character graph. The ten episodes are pretty addictive and credit must be given to the writer for creating compelling characters.
The tension is more pronounced and the diminuendos and crescendos of life’s music that they face seem real and relatable. Umang still hasn’t been able to forget her love for Samara Kapoor (Lisa Ray). Damini busies herself into researching for a book she plans to write on a politically sensitive topic. Anjana has a new boss at work and things don’t go as planned, while Siddhi in her quest to discover herself unearths a latent talent.
Given the way, conflicts play out and the idiosyncrasies of our characters and their typically personal response to any problem, the buoyant performances by not just the lead but even the excellently put together ensemble is terrific. Four More Shots Please! season 2 does leave us in high spirits.
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