7 Spot-On Reasons Why You REALLY Have To Kick Back & Stream Masaba Masaba
Netflix India recently released ‘Masaba Masaba’, which comes as a balanced mix of reality/documentary/fictional show that paints the life of Indian designer Masaba Gupta and her National Award-winning actress mom Neena Gupta (Neenaji to the initiated). When Neena Gupta decided to have a baby girl with West Indies-based cricketer Vivian Richards out of wedlock, it created ripples around the nation and not much has changed since.
Neena Gupta is still as bold, and at (almost) 60, is charting her life with her own rules. Her Instagram post-opening about how she’s living in Mumbai and looking for work was groundbreaking and so, so appreciated. Masaba Gupta is equally bold, talented and thanks to her looks and upbringing, is always having to answer to stereotypes which have just made her more iconic. Her fashion line is doing wonders and her personal life regularly fills up space in gossip columns. If going behind the scenes to see how these two fun women deal with their life isn’t already inviting enough to you, we give you seven more reasons to flip the play button on and kick back and settle in for the ride!
1. It’s A Fun Take On The Frequently-Superficial World Of Bollywood
Picture Credits: ekalakhani
Kiara Advani wants her outfit to match her broom and trades Masaba’s sunglasses with the broom while Farah Khan imagines her face on Katrina Kaif’s chikni chameli body and a hysterical show stopper actress cannot deal with not being in touch with her ‘full-of-it’ actor boyfriend for even a few hours. Bollywood is obsessed with vanity and the show doesn’t pretend to hide this fact but rather, shows Masaba dealing with it with a dollop of resignation and oodles of sass and we are HERE for it!
2. You’ll Get To Go Behind The Scenes In The Whirlwind World Of Fashion
Picture Credits: masabagupta
Fashion is glamorous, beautiful, and classy to us viewers. But are things exactly as they appear backstage? That’s a big NO if you believe Masaba Masaba. The show shows an actual picture of how tough it is to keep pushing out new collections every season with no respite even if you have a personal crisis to deal with. It sheds light on the reality of fashion houses’ finances and how heavily investors could be breathing down your neck even if your creative flow doesn’t seem to be interested in flowing. And most hilariously, the show unveils the actual mess that happens behind those glossy-looking fashion shows and how easy it is for things there to get out of hand disastrously!
3. You’ll Love Neena Gupta’s Portrayal Of A Middle-Aged Woman Restarting Her Life
Picture Credits: neena_gupta
Mean girls don’t grow up after high school, they just get meaner and find you at your lowest moments even later in life. Neena Gupta is attempting to rebuild her life at the age of 60 and that is an arduous task not just in Bollywood, but anywhere in the world. But she handles it like a total BOSS and to be honest, becomes even more badass and awesome than even Masaba. She is sweet to her Mean girl opponent even when she’s being boastful, she does better than a popular millennial actress with major attitude problems and schools her without using her words, gets so child-like happy on winning meaty roles, deals with work-related disappointments with tact and handles her marriage with lots of patience. Now, if that’s not wholesome TV, we don’t know what is!
4. You’ll Get To See Masaba Handling Her Divorce With A Heavy Heart & Lots Of Sass
Picture Credits: imdb
Divorces are tough. They bring your world to a standstill and change the way you feel about so many things in general. It takes time to get through them and you, more often than not, feel like a failure by the time it’s done. Masaba, in what we think is a bold decision, shows her divorce and the end of her marriage at the beginning of the show. She shows her vulnerable side as someone who still hasn’t accepted the situation but has her husband pull the rug under her as he insists on ending things ASAP. He even goes on to date someone new around her, although he’s still supportive of Masaba. While she doesn’t seem too split up about losing a guy she loved, she does struggle with living alone, getting her own place, and handling her independent finances. Without being too depressingly sad, the divorce has been portrayed in crisp, powerful moments that move quite quickly, ensuring the show doesn’t seem like a sappy romance drama.
5. Neenaji Realising She’s Quirky AF & Being Okay With That
Picture Credits: neena_gupta
Is it evident to you now that we wish the show had been named Neena Neena? We stan her way of accepting herself. Watch her attempting to learn how to drive a car but driving the instructor crazy instead, smile hard as you watch her haggling with the sabzi walla till he gives in, laugh as you watch her asking for Instagram advice from her house help and fall in love as she stays the sweetest mother to Masaba even while dealing with the craziness of her own life. From her hunting down information on her own daughter, while deflecting gossipers, from her scolding her daughter but desperately wanting to keep her close, from her enjoying the spotlight on herself in a fake world but penning down the most honest Instagram post about looking for work, Neenaji is a very beautiful character. She is honest, sweet, funny, patient, calm, and so, so innocent. You might be on the fence about how you feel about Masaba, but we guarantee you’ll love Neenaji and would want to have so many of her traits when you grow up to be her age - 60 and fabulous!
6. To See The Best & Most Realistic Mother-Daughter Relationship On Or Off-Screen
Picture Credits: imdb
A mother is always a mother. And a daughter always needs her mother. No matter how modern and bold Neenaji is, no matter how big or successful Masaba is, they have a beautifully down to earth mother-daughter relationship and it is heartwarming to watch this. Masaba runs to her mother’s house when she gets divorced and is fed paranthas and more soul food. She constantly blames Neena for setting such high expectations for marriage and life in general and she prevents her mother from finding out about her life and her mother, in turn, snoops on Instagram and through her friends to find out the tea, but when push comes to shove, they both support each other and wait for each other’s validation to feel whole again. It’s a relationship so many of us can identify with, making the show relatable, practical and adorable!
7. For Lots Of Funny Oops Moments
Picture Credits: masabagupta
Quickies in the washroom, misdirected texts, wrong gay-dar, terrible one night stands, and total in your face moments - Masaba Masaba does have girls going slightly crazy at times. From pink toys to boy toys, the show does have some girly-girl moments due to its all-female star cast but they are, like all other storylines, short and crisp, thus evoking oops faces and stifled laughter but don’t go further into breaking down and resolving the faux pas and leave it at just that - funny anecdotes. Masaba’s best friend Gia takes the cake in this department with her quirky one-liners, her openly fun personality, and her devil-may-care attitude. Pooja Bedi, Masaba’s dim-witted and vain counsellor comes in at a close second position. Her role as a bored wife to a philandering actor seems to only have been cast for more funny, facepalm moments and we love each and every one of them!
Just re-hashing these cutesy moments already has us hitting play again and we’re sure you’d like to see it for yourselves! So why not spend three hours tonight to binge-watch through the whole series at once?!
Watch Online Here | Masaba Masaba
Published By:
Aarushi Jain
I’m an architect and sociologist who lives for art and culture. A designer with ...