The Fame Game Review: Madhuri Dixit’s Netflix Debut Is Superficial and Empty

The Fame Game — the brand new Netflix collection with Madhuri Dixit Nene, now streaming — at its coronary heart, needs to be an examination of the darkish aspect of being a star. That explains the title swap from the extra intriguing and psychological Finding Anamika to the plainer and extra generic The Fame Game. Through its new title, the makers posit, it should dive into the cult of stardom. And who higher to guide such a TV present than one among Bollywood’s largest yesteryear “superstars” in Dixit Nene. But regardless of being made by a number of the largest insiders on the town — Karan Johar is a producer — The Fame Game has little or no of concrete to say concerning the underbelly of being well-known. If something, it comes throughout as fan fiction at instances, like outsiders projecting what they hear within the information. It ought to supply a deeper reflection — however too typically, it finally ends up treading in clichés and surface-level observations.

It does not assist that The Fame Game is poor on most accounts. The dialogue is both empty, horrible, or superficial. Characters converse extremely of others to convey their greatness to the viewers. Actors ship traces as if they’re being learn off the web page. This is an indication of poor route too, which rears its head elsewhere with scenes heightened for no purpose. I stored ready for deeper, smarter conversations to occur however they by no means got here. If fictitious characters are going to have mundane conversations, why am I watching this? TV writers spend weeks and months on their scripts, their interactions must really feel richer than what we are saying in actual time. I’ve seen six of the eight episodes — that is what Netflix gave us critics entry to — and it might take a miracle for The Fame Game to get any higher from right here on.

Sri Rao — a co-writer on the “catastrophically stupid” 2016 sci-fi romantic drama Baar Baar Dekho — is credited because the creator, author, and showrunner on The Fame Game, so a lot of the blame lies there. Bejoy Nambiar (Wazir, Shaitan) and Karishma Kohli (Mentalhood, the fluffy Karisma Kapoor comedy-drama collection) direct The Fame Game episodes. Nambiar was hailed as a new-wave filmmaker publish Shaitan, however he is been on a downward curve since. Amita Vyas, Shreya Bhattacharya, and Akshat Ghildial (Badhaai Ho, Badhaai Do) function Hindi dialogue writers. Vyas and Bhattacharya appear to be in-house Netflix writers, given their involvement on different Indian originals.

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Aside from its thematic failures, The Fame Game crumbles structurally too. The new Indian Netflix collection is designed as a missing-persons detective thriller — it largely consists of a break up timeline, with current day operating in parallel with flashbacks that begin six months previous to the incident — which requires creating an setting and a temper for its universe that the viewers goes to be immersed in. But tonal consistency is seemingly not a topic that has been taught to those writers. Because 5 minutes in, The Fame Game makes use of its casting of the erstwhile Bollywood musical queen with a million-dollar smile to provide us a tune and dance sequence that is not in step with what the collection is supposed to be. It’s a wholly synthetic fan service inclusion — and it occurs greater than as soon as.

At one level early in The Fame Game’s first episode, a personality laments that “the idiot director doesn’t know what they are doing. They just keep ballooning the budget. I gave them everything: costumes, sets, locations. So many workshops and they deliver a crap movie?” In that scene, the character is speaking a couple of film they’re producing — however that is precisely how I additionally felt concerning the new Netflix collection. Well, save for that performing workshop bit. Because clearly there was none of that.

The Fame Game primarily follows the Anands. Dixit Nene performs Bollywood star Anamika “Anu” Anand (née Vijju Joshi), the only real earner of the household who’s holding onto her fame for she believes she has nothing else. Her husband Nikhil More (Sanjay Kapoor) has little affection for his spouse, and her mom (Suhasini Muley) claims to do all the things for them however she is biting, caustic, and feels she does not get the respect she deserves. Both have cash issues which have depleted Anamika’s funds — unbeknownst to her. Her youngest Amara “Amu” Anand (Muskkaan Jaferi) craves the limelight like her mom, as she desires to be greater than “Anamika’s daughter”. And her troubled depressed homosexual son Avinash “Avi” Anand (Lakshvir Singh Saran) lashes out at everybody in his life who attempt to take care of him.

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Muskkaan Jaferi as Amara Anand, Lakshvir Singh Saran as Avinash Anand in The Fame Game
Photo Credit: Siddharth Halbe/Netflix

After Anamika goes lacking, the highlight lands on everybody she knew. Outside of the Anands, The Fame Game’s ensemble consists of three others — there’s the divorced bipolar star Manish Khanna (Manav Kaul) who has historical past with Anamika although they have not seen one another in 20 years in the beginning of the brand new Netflix collection. And there’s an orphaned younger man (Gagan Arora) who’s obsessive about Anamika to an insane diploma, stalking her at any time when he will get an opportunity. Investigating all of them is the lesbian ACP Shobha Trivedi (Rajshri Deshpande) who, at the start, dismisses the entire thing as “a bloody Bollywood case.” Coming on the again of two years the place Bollywood stars and their progeny have been dragged by the mud to go well with the nationwide agenda, it feels bizarre. Why are Rao and Co. intentionally fuelling a bad-faith political witch-hunt?

More importantly although, The Fame Game fails as each a detective story and an ensemble piece. The early investigation scenes pale compared to the likes of Knives Out, with The Fame Game serving as stark proof of Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig working on one other airplane. But the brand new Indian Netflix collection does not attempt to be Knives Out for too lengthy. Trivedi comes and goes out of The Fame Game, together with her private life handled in minor forgettable vignettes, as if the remainder of her scenes have been excised on the edit desk. It’s largely concerning the lives of Anamika and people round her for the six months main as much as her disappearance — nevertheless it’s far and wide though the household takes up a lot of the oxygen. Chiefly, they’re boring, be it the husband, two youngsters, the mom, or the servant (Shubhangi Latkar).

But The Fame Game’s largest crime is in pondering it’s tackling one thing larger. The Netflix collection ruffles by main subjects akin to psychological well being, physique picture, home abuse, and fan and celeb tradition. (It’s additionally cute of Dharma to namecheck nepotism in its present.) Except it is fooling nobody — solely itself. At the tip of the day, these are merely propped-up causes to boost the thriller round Anamika’s disappearance. The Fame Game is not any You’re the Worst, GLOW, or Big Little Lies. I’ve already famous my disappointment with the final of these — stardom — and The Fame Game even wilfully ignores how the business works at instances to go well with its narrative. Rao does not have something significant to say, which is how we find yourself with fluffy jokes across the time period “comeback vehicle”.

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Manav Kaul as Manish Khanna, Madhuri Dixit Nene as Anamika Anand, Sanjay Kapoor as Nikhil More in The Fame Game
Photo Credit: Siddharth Halbe/Netflix

A bolder collection would have the tongue-in-cheek audacity to take a dig at its star’s personal “comeback” makes an attempt. Dixit Nene, who left Bollywood on the flip of the century after her marriage, has been making sporadic however repeated makes an attempt to re-enter the business since 2007. Starting with the tasteless Aaja Nachle, then the wonderful Dedh Ishqiya in 2014, and the high-profile misfire Kalank — additionally from Johar’s Dharma — in 2019. There have been extra forgettable entries right here and there, however they’ve been all films.

The Fame Game is Dixit Nene’s first-ever episodic position — she was a visitor star in a single episode of the 1985 Doordarshan collection Paying Guest — and it wanted to be much less tame. If Bollywood’s yesteryear veterans are going to usher themselves into what was presupposed to be the brand new period of streaming filmmaking, then it must imply one thing greater than this. It must try for greater than this. Because when all is claimed and accomplished, The Fame Game is a variation on what Bollywood has served up a thousand instances earlier than.

I can not say if she was consulted, however perhaps Dixit Nene did not have the braveness to be that open and self-referential. She’s taking part in it too protected right here, presumably too involved about her picture that has been fastidiously crafted and managed over many years. If Dixit Nene believes any of this materials is trendy or difficult, then Bollywood stars actually do reside in a manufactured world of their very own.

Because in the end, The Fame Game is simply too shiny and synthetic. It’s not sufficient to easily evoke nostalgia, pull these chords, put Dixit Nene in a wide range of beautiful flowing costumes — she and two different top-billed stars have their very own particular costume designer — and name it a day.

The new Indian Netflix collection thinks it is being uncooked and digging its nails into the darkish aspect of stardom. But in actuality, The Fame Game is simply too meek to sort out any of that. And by affiliation, Dixit Nene appears too afraid to upend any a part of her storied legacy.

The Fame Game launched February 25 at 1:30pm IST on Netflix worldwide.