Series: Call Me Bae, 8 episodes

Cast: Ananya Panday, Varun Soon, Veer Das, Vihaan Samat, Gurfateh Pirzada

Rating: 3 Moons

In a short time in Bollywood, with some hard work in different genres and a strong social media presence, Ananya Pandey has established herself as an actress to be taken seriously. Her new series Call Me Bae on Prime Video is another step in this direction.

Call Me Bae revolves around Bela (Ananya Panday) who lives a super luxurious life. But a strange quirk of fate, Bela is unexpectedly forced to live an ordinary life. Only a few pairs of expensive things remain from her past life. Bela has been brought up in a traditional manner by her brother and is expected to assume the responsibility of becoming an ideal daughter and wife. She has to come to Mumbai to understand what life and struggle are all about. The series shows how Bela lives like a common person and what problems she faces.

Ananya does well. Though her performance is patchy. The humour in the series is funny but there is so little of this. The weak writing prevents her from going full throttle. Veer Das is over the top and excessive at times as a news anchor. Gurfateh Pirzada and Varun Sood are solid in their roles. The rest of the cast has also done a decent job, but the lack of writing lets them down. Ishita Moitra, who created this series, and Colin D'Cunha who directed it, do not live up to their standards. The writing takes too long to get to the point. Due to which, the audience could lose interest rapidly. Watch Call Me Bae by all means… but don't set your expectations too high.