Review | 'Call My Agent: Bollywood' Is Dull and Disappointing

Call My Agent: Bollywood is Netflix India’s latest attempt at making something edgy, something new and something entertaining yet real. This sweet spot between the “real” and the masala, is what Netflix India’s attempts usually aim for, whether its with the good old Sacred Games or acquiring shows like Kota Factory and Little things and even attempting many long forgotten pieces like Chopsticks and Typewriter. Call My Agent: Bollywood is no new feat and is based on another one of Netflix’s own broadcasted shows, the French Dix Pour Cent and while the show carries a similar level of production and even storyline, Call My Agent: Bollywood is a more watered down, clean, PG13 version of the original, lacking its originality, grip and even masala.

The direction of the show is obvious and very conscious, the camera moving around, following characters in and out of rooms, spaces and more, jumping to the beat of the characters manic existence, attempting to recreate the chaotic energy of a big, fancy, talent management office. In places it has that typical The Office type documentary style energy but remains out of the mock documentary genre, as there is no fourth wall breaking and no acknowledgement of the fact that this, in fact, is fiction. The direction is stylised and would have worked if the script itself had the kind of chaotic substance to offer, which it does not.

The self referential tone and honest critique of “Bollywood” or the film industry, any for that matter, is quite a half hearted. For the starstruck common man, a glimpse into the somewhat ruthless life behind the camera, could have been refreshing and engaging if it had the honest insight of shows like Made In Heaven, but it does not.

The set design and music score are particularly difficult to sit through. While the show positions itself as heartfelt, ironic, quirky, funny and warm, the music creates a melodramatic atmosphere reminiscent of TV serials from the early 2000s. It is not flattering. The set design is garish, in an attempt to make the world colourful which in its writing is not, and the costume designs are too obvious. Everyone looks a little too perfect to be financially struggling young ones in one of the worlds most expensive cities. Why is that the girl from Goa will wear the scruffy denims and glittery nail polish and the other serious, sombre Delhi girl be dressed as if about to enter a board meeting to discuss very serious matters? The characters look and feel like caricatures.

Their personal lives, too, are casually explained and easy, removing ample scope for conflict and drama that could have lent these characters a far deeper and memorable colour. Aahana Kumra as a Muslim lesbian who says janab after every sentence and screams at the top of her lungs at the slightest provocation is insufferable. Ayush Mehra is a Parsi boy who struggles to keep his clients happy and feel put together but has a BMW and an empty bungalow in which, for some reason, no one else seems to come and go and is perpetually bathed in darkness. He is positioned to be the adorable one but doesn’t land and we hardly feel anything for him, Soni Razdan as a star making agent, the best and oldest in the business, is bland and boring, looking confused for the most part throughout the show, with no gravitas or weight of an experienced manager who everyone looks up to. Razdan is perhaps one of the worst written characters of them all, while even the others do no service to the viewers. The only person bearable and relatively believable is Rajat Kapoor as another senior talent manager, but he too suffers, from a weakly written character and even weaker storyline. Of the four lead characters, only Kapoor is fun to watch. Why did everyone walk, talk and seem so awkward, I wondered throughout watching the show.

The story has so many loopholes and convenient plot twists that halfway into the second episode one is yawning and predicting the story from miles away. There isn’t much to tell about the story. It's is about the fairly boring and sanitised workings of the lives of talent managers of Bollywood movie stars and there isn’t much else. From losing one client a movie here to losing another client a movie there, from arranging one shoot here that goes horribly wrong to another shoot there which also goes horribly wrong, there is not much else happening. The sub plots like characters wanting children or people having random affairs with actors they just met are brought in from nowhere and lead nowhere. Financial problems of the company and the individuals also come from nowhere and go nowhere, conveniently either forgotten or resolved in passing and whatever little plot there is, is a contrived copy of a much better original. I would view this as an original piece of work, not to be compared by the original, but when it is branded as a remake and doesn’t work as either remake or an original, there is very little to say on the matter.

There are guest appearances from the likes of Dia Mirza, Lillete Dubey, Ila Arun and Richa Chadha, giving the makers and writers so much scope for something fun and real, but they barely manage to scratch the surface, all the comedic talent wasted.

Call My Agent: Bollywood is a show about nothing really, and even what it tries to be a show about it doesn’t manage to tell us anything that we don’t already know. Like I said, it barely scratches any surface, creates any real conflict or any real resolutions. For a show about the lives of so called exciting people, it remains fairly boring, with a story that is but a chain of endless loopholes and forgotten sub plots. Top that with average music, costume and set design, and we have an eye and ear sore ready to be served.