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'Fabulous Lives Vs Bollywood Wives Season 3' Review: Not so fabulous after all

There's a definite lack of drama in this tale of two cities

Cast: Maheep Kapoor, Seema Khan, Neelam Kothari, Bhavna Pandey, Kalyani Chawla, Shalini Passi and Riddhima Sahni

Rating: 2.5

By the end of Fabulous Lives Vs Bollywood Wives, you'll have two cities permanently added to your "nope, never" list: Mumbai or Bombay, as the show constantly calls it, and Delhi. Apparently, drama travels faster than flights between the two.

The entire premise of Season 3 of Netflix’s latest show, which follows the glamorous and supposedly aspirational lives of four Bollywood star wives, revolves around the tired, overused and utterly unremarkable rivalry between two of India’s most important cities — one, the finance and entertainment capital, and the other, the political and social power hub. What should ideally be a recycled WhatsApp joke to be shared over dinner table conversations is stretched across eight overlong episodes, with the punchlines getting stuck somewhere between Bandra and Khan Market.

Now, let’s get some facts straight to manage expectations. The Fabulous Lives… series is not meant for intellectual dissection. The reason why it exists and gets renewed by Netflix is exactly why shows like Keeping Up with The Kardashians and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills become reality blockbusters. They provide the perfect cringe-binge for an audience that knows how to suspend their disbelief.

This is the best mindset to adopt while watching Karan Johar’s latest production. If you have been free enough to watch the previous two seasons of fluff and froth, you would know that anything and everything depicted on the show has to be taken with gallons of salt. One set of the OTT audience watches it to troll it while the other sees it to take style notes and gawk at the ladies in la-la land. Whichever category you belong to, be rest assured, this series will have your back.

Season 3 follows pretty much the same template. Maheep Kapoor, Seema Khan, Neelam Kothari and Bhavna Pandey are best friends who always seem to be at odds with each other, even as they flaunt designer outfits, gossip, rave, rant and offer opinions on everyone they encounter. When things get tense, mutual buddy Johar swoops in, Oprah-like, with his trademark wit and wisdom. In between, you can spot plenty of brand associations and new hotspots in the city to hang out. And whenever the entertainment quotient dips, a Bollywood A-lister drops by to spice things up. Gauri Khan and Shah Rukh Khan saved the day in the last two seasons; this time the job has been done by Saif Ali Khan. Simply put, it’s like watching one big Bandra party streamed into your homes.

However, there is one big change that deserves a mention…. that of a preposition. Fabulous Lives OF Bollywood Wives becomes Fabulous Lives VS Bollywood Wives. Kudos to creativity.

The fabulous lives, in this case, are led by three gorgeous, drowning-in-bling women from the ultra-elite circle of Delhi. Luxury entrepreneur Kalyani Chawla, artist and millionaire art collector Shalini Passi and Bollywood blue blood Riddhima Sahni, sister of Ranbir Kapoor, make up the ‘Dilli Billis’ (translated as Delhi Cats, as Episode 1 terms them). They are pitted against our four Bollywood celebs who clash with them over culture, fashion, hosting skills and well… pretty much everything else. This also gives room for plenty of age-old Delhi-Mumbai cliches to be bandied about - ‘Delhi is opulent’ ‘Bombay has no sense of style’. Delhi people dress for themselves, Bombay dresses up for paps’, ‘Delhi wears heels to the park’. Yawwnn.

In between all the competition, two episodes are devoted to a holiday in Mauritius, courtesy Mauritius Tourism. (It was Doha in the first series, remember?) where the divas squabble some more. By this time, you are more invested in the beaches and greenery of the island than what the squad is up to. The action then shifts to Mumbai where the families' nepo kids like Ananya Pandey and Khushi Kapoor pop in as does social media sensation Orry, Karan Johar, Gauri Khan and Susanne Khan. The Delhi women also pay a visit to Mumbai to create more non-existent excitement.

Of course, none of it is meant to be taken seriously. After all, this is a world where guests wear utensils as headgear at a MASH Ball Shalini throws for UNICEF. It’s a universe where Riddhima hosts an eye-popping Karwa Chauth party, Shalini has a spiritual psychotherapist and signs up for Cryotherapy before jetting off on a holiday and guests talk about going to Rishikesh over bubbly. It’s also a space where one of the wives boasts about wearing her wedding sari to the party and the other nods appreciatively, “Sustainability, man!”

One could argue that glorifying Karwa Chauth, likening it to intermittent fasting or wishing each other "Happy KC" does not make this patriarchal tradition cool, but that would be giving the show too much weight. Instead, you should check out the stunning traditional outfits worn by the leads; they deserve a place in your wardrobe if you can afford it.

Since this is a reality show, one can’t really talk about performances. Who you like or dislike essentially depends on what your personal tastes in people are. Yet Riddhima makes a confident debut in front of the camera, looking so stunning that you really wonder if Bollywood lost a star. Neelam, Maheep and Seema carry their personas from the first and second season while Kalyani and Shalini try to fit into the universe.

On the brighter and ‘blingier’ side, the series scores a 100/10. The fashion is expectedly loud, ostentatious and dripping high-end designers while every bit of Delhi opulence and Bollywood glamour is amped to make up for the lack of real drama.

However, there is one aspect that deserved genuine space - the men. Samir Soni (married to Neelam), Sanjay Kapoor (Maheep’s husband and actor Anil Kapoor’s brother) and Chunky Pandey (Bhavana’s better half) are so natural, real and fun that you want to watch more of them. Be it Sanjay ribbing his wife about doing a Karwa Chauth for Gucci and Louis Vuitton or Chunky Pandey boasting about his beer belly, the gentlemen are a hoot. The cameo by Saif Ali Khan, where he reads a bit of Charles Dickens and tries (unsuccessfully) to engage the women in books, is also very enjoyable.

Is anyone up for making The Real Husbands of Bollywood ? No offense meant but their lives and personalities seem so much more fabulous than that of their wives.

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