How many times have you seen four married middle-class women in Hindi cinema enjoying the sun and sand in Goa without the company of their husbands? jahan chaar yari Venture into a field usually reserved for naughty boys in all age groups and reveal to the world that women can also say: heart wants, But after promising a fun ride, the film gets busy promoting that for every terrible wife, there is an equally terrible husband in this universe.
It lacks technical support, and we have a well-intentioned film that fails to do justice to its strong female cast. Writer-director Kamal Pandey has surfaced through the television circuit, and bubbles of a daily soap can be seen in the drama.
It is a coming-of-age story of four friends, Shivangi, Sakina, Neha and Mansi, who are struggling in their married life but are not ready to face the truth. On an accidental break in Goa, the girls get to talk candidly about their self-interested life partner, who is slowly eroding their identity and self-respect, but not before they can break away from their restrictive lives. She enjoys ‘freedom’, she gets entangled in it. A murder investigation.
What works for the film is the natural nature of the leading women which compensates for the average writing and overacting by the male members of the cast. As Shivangi, Swara Bhaskar plays the role of a housewife who is made a maid by her husband and in-laws. Armed with her penchant for eastern Uttar Pradesh/Bihar language and self-deprecating humour, Swara keeps Shivangi’s effortless spark alive and delivers a performance that is totally relatable.
Shikha Talsania is also not bad as a wife who stands by a benevolent spouse. Pooja Chopra and Mehr Vij complete the chase that may have felt stifled in their relationship but hasn’t given up on their zest for life.
His camaraderie with rib-tickling one-liners keeps you invested. Kamal succeeds in creating an atmosphere of domestic politics prevailing in small-town India and households. There are some refreshing moments in the film which we don’t usually get in Hindi cinema. There is a reference to the newly enacted law against instant triple talaq which has arguably empowered Muslim women in suffocating relationships. The way Shivangi’s daughter tells her mother not to be the doormat is inspiring, and the reaction of the married women threatens to bring down the house before a rakish stranger turns into Kamal’s third act.