The Expression Hub

Genre: Drama

No. of episodes:6

Presented by: Chernin Entertainment and Endemol Shine Group

“Nothing spells shame like living what feels like a double life.”

Angel Grant

Everyone has his or her share of difficulties in life no matter what heights he or she has conquered. Some are struggling with problems in their professional lives; while there are others who seem to be successful in their professional lives but have their personal lives in a complete mess. Yet , we as adults are not allowed to address them by giving ourselves an outlet to express ourselves or live a life without inhibitions. We always have that stupid and irrelevant fear in how others perceive us. So, what do we do? We either try to act as if everything is manageable even though it might not be. Or we try to fit in into what is considered as cool but might not be relevant . Or maybe just put on a mask which hides some aspects of our personality and try to act as if we have everything under control? Life would have been much better if we did not have to go though the brutal lens of someone’s judgement isn’t it? If we could just live our lives without any inhibitions and not be judged for it, maybe the world might not have had to put on a facade and would have been more open about addressing their problems. Not that there are not people who are willing to help, there are but often we face trust issues or just have our internal demons to fight. This and a lot more is explored in this week’s pick.

Synopsis: Mumbai is supposed to be known as the city of dreams. This is a city which has everything in it – the rich, the poor, the good and the ugly. Everyone living in the city has some sort of ambition. That ambition can be like getting a dream job or maybe providing a good life to yourself or maybe if you have kids to them. But having ambitions comes with a cost. This fact is realized by five different women from different spheres of life who are interconnected to one another. Three of them are employees of a prestigious bank in the city, while one is a daughter of the bank employee and one is a former bar dancer who is forced into prostitution as she has lost her job. Each one has their lives messed up in some or the other manner. The lady CEO has an open relationship despite having a loving husband as she is not getting the recognition she deserves from her supposedly children despite providing them all. The deputy of the bank is in dilemma whether to have kids or not as she is nearing her forties but does not want to disappoint her husband. The third woman is a simple employee who is living a double life as she is a bisexual woman . The fourth who is into prostitution hopes for a better life of her son who is denied opportunities despite being good in his studies. And the last, who is also the daughter of the lady CEO of the bank is facing body image problems as she has just hit puberty. Each one is fighting their inner demons but also have one thing in common – a sense of ambition and for that if they have to go the extra mile they will, by resorting to unfair methods and means. But how far will they go by resorting to these methods?Will they be able to fulfill their ambitions or will they fall into deeper problems?

Assessment: This is a show which tries to highlight various problems faced by women through these five people . It tries to explore the themes of drug abuse(a problem which is highly prevalent in the higher strata of the society), broken dreams, aspirations, affairs along with harassment faced at workplace as well as in personal lives. It also tries to explore the theme of body image issues or how some women find it difficult to balance work-life balance . While these issues are real and prevalent in the real world as well, however, there are some issues which are major turn offs. Like for instance, how can the solution to everything be sleeping with someone else ? And how can one not speak about the harassment faced at the workplace ? Though the issue seems to be taken seriously later but it just seems like a fake effort to promote feminism and show how justice prevails in the end. Also, it seems that these people do not seem to explore the legal aspects or are pretty ignorant about it.

The story writers seem to just have written the story for the sake of writing it and thrown in some aspects of feminism. As a woman, I completely felt ashamed of what I was viewing in the name of feminism. Are educated women so cheap that in order to get what they want, they will just indulge in affairs instead of working hard or fixing the problems? Agreed that you were trying to portray a realistic picture but it just seems that you are viewing a cheap adult movie.Shahana Goswami shines as Fatima but it seems that she doesn’t have a spine though she should have had one. More than the educated lot, I personally felt the only character that had some spine was that portrayed by Amruta Subhash. At least, through her character, a mother’s love and struggle to provide her son a good life was highlighted.Another good thing is that it is a short series else imagine the headache the viewers one would have had.Thirdly, it seems that some male characters in the series have more brains than these women like for instance like the husband of the MD of the bank Naushad or Ron . This at least makes you feel that not all men are bad at heart because some really do have them .And last but not the least, can we just appreciate the doodles made by Shai though some of them are way too provocative. 😅

The view: What could have been a great opportunity to showcase feminism and reality through the lives of these five women feels like a complete hogwash and a very big disappointment. Sorry Alankrita, you might have earned accolades for your initial film but you disappoint in this one. Hope you come up with better stories in the near future so that you do not disappoint the viewers like you did in this one. You might be a great storyteller but you just failed to impress as well as entertain this time.

Rating: 1/2 star(I wish there was something called a negative rating I would have seriously given this show that)

Baap Dialogue: “Growth begins when we actually work in the real world. Not with Harvard or Ivy League college degrees.”

Que: What is the name of the women empowerment scheme launched by the Royal Bank of Bombay?

a. Stree Shakti

b. Shakti

c.Stree Samman

d. Ujjwala