Decoupled Review: R Madhavan and Surveen Chawla’s naughty but nice series entertains & indirectly tackles issues

R. Madhavan and Surveen Chawla are talented actors. But the fact that they look good together on-screen was brought to our notice when the trailer of their Netflix web series Decoupled was dropped. The two are a married couple who are living together and pushing their divorce for the sake of their daughter Rohini . They have separate rooms, separate lives but are not ready to take separate paths because they are worried about how the 12 year old will react. Well, the 8 episode series premiered today and our review is ready to help you decide if it’s worth binge-watching over the weekend or not. No spoilers!

The show begins with a not too pleasant car ride where Surveen aka Shruti tries to convince her ex husband Arya , portrayed by Madhavan, to tell the driver that he smells bad. We then find out that Arya is a bestselling pulp fiction author, right behind Chetan Bhagat who has played the best character in this series. They have a fun rivalry which almost makes you wish that it was the main plot! Well, Shruti is ready to tell the entire world that she and Arya are separating but the latter is worried about their daughter. They feel she will end up acting out, which she eventually does. Throughout their journey to ‘decoupling’, we get to see different sides of the two main leads and understand that maybe their divorce is for the better. Can’t two people fall out of love and remain best friends? Also as a subplot, Arya is pitching an idea to Netflix for a show along with Guru Agni and his filmmaker friend.

What’s interesting about this series is that it indirectly tackles a few important issues. Some may feel that these topics are being used as the base of jokes, but you have to see it to make an opinion. These subjects are subtly discussed and don’t steal the limelight. For instance, when Arya’s daughter sees a family mistreating their house help and uploads a video of the same on social media through her famous novelist father’s official handle. Another special aspect of Decoupled is that it gives us two characters who have multiple shades to their personalities-- in some scenes Arya makes you laugh whereas other times you feel he is self-absorbed, overly opinionated and annoying. The same goes for Shruti. This fact, that these are two normal people, hits you like a breath of fresh air at a time where grey characters are the biggest trend on OTT.

The series is entertaining, witty and like our title revealed, naughty but nice. All in all, Decoupled is a smartly made web show which is worth your time-- if you are up for binge-watching something that entertains you, but doesn’t leave you with much to ponder over. Madhavan and Surveen also set the premise for a season 2, but they don’t leave you scratching your head. Their show is simple and fun but will surely help you take your mind off day to day life. So go on, take a break!