The Fame Game (25 Feb 2022)

Channel: Netflix

Genre: Suspense Thriller Drama 

Language: Hindi

No. of Episodes: 8

Average Duration: 45 minutes

Director: Bejoy Nambiar, Karishma Kohli, Sri Rao

Cast: Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Kapoor, Manav Kaul, Suhasini Mulay, Lakshvir Saran, Rajshri Deshpande, Muskkaan Jaferi, Makrand Deshpande, Gagan Arora, Subhangi Latkar

Music: Andrew Orkin, Harini Raghavan

Editing: Monisha R Baldawa

Introduction: 

The Fame Game is the OTT debut of cine world stalwart Madhuri Dixit, the superstar of the late 80's and full 90's & a cine diva forever with Dharmatic Entertainment, the digital content company by Dharma Productions which is owned by Karan Johar.

It was bound to be impactful and it is. But it is more of a nostalgic ride of Madhuri's dazzling cinematic presence and good acting, rather than a content rich and crisp suspense thriller, that it intends to be.

Plot:

Anamika Anand (Madhuri Dixit), a top actress goes missing post an award event which kick-starts an investigation by no-nonsense and methodical police officer Shobha (Rajshri Deshpande).

As her investigation proceeds, one by one she interviews family members and associates of Anamika, who may not  divulge in front of her the absolute truth, but we as an audience eventually get to see the not so hunky dory interactions that transpired in the last six months between Anamika and her - husband Nikhil (Sanjay Kapoor), son Avi (Lakshvir Saran), daughter Amara (Muskkaan Jaferi), mother (Suhasini Mulay), house manager, co-actor cum old flame Manish Khanna (Manav Kaul), make up man, a slimy financier and an obsessed fan Madhav (Gagan Arora).

As the series shuffles between present and immediate 6past months, it becomes clear that behind the 1000 watt smile of the middle aged but ultra-popular cine diva with a luxurious bungalow, full family, a train of staff, good work at hand, lies a spirited but tired woman who - was forced to enter the tinsel town at a young age against her wishes, all thanks to her controlling mother; shares an almost loveless relationship with her husband that borders on domestic abuse; constantly bears the ire of inferiority complexes of her almost adult children; just cannot escape the snide comments of her mother passed under the garb of disciplining her family and herself; yearns direly but finds it difficult to give a proper second chance to lost love i.e. Manish Khanna as she is a married woman with kids; is tired of making extra efforts to cling onto her stardom and compete with much younger actresses and their skin show route to top the charts!

In short she is tired of flying solo to make it all work when everyone around her is either coning her or taking her for granted.

Given Anamika's circumstances, almost everyone appears to be a suspect in her kidnapping and/or murder.

Watch the series to see what actually happened to Anamika and how the mystery was solved.

Analysis:

In the series, Madhuri Dixit has the maximum screen time and close shots and she has aced it all with her inherent beauty, dignity and grace. She has well adopted the new style of acting and is expectantly wonderful in dance numbers.

Her wardrobe is fantastic. She adorns it all with perfection sans any skin show or in-your-face botox.

All the other actors have also performed well, but Manav Kaul has clearly scored above all. His acting has well defined layers. His character appears kind of besotted and in love with Anamika, but his real self never looks intimidated by Madhuri. Whether it's exuberance or nervous anticipation or despair, he has portrayed it all beautifully.

Conclusion:

If you are a Madhuri Dixit fan, do watch the series. If you are not, you can still watch it as in spite of the missing thrill, it's engaging. The diva keeps you hooked to the screen.