Fabulous Lives VS Bollywood Wives S3 Review: Bling Goes Boring

The new season of Fabulous Wives of Bollywood Wives, now retitled Fabulous Wives vs. Bollywood Wives, brings back the much-needed dose of drama with the OG gang Maheep Kapoor, Bhavana Panday, Neelam Kothari and Seema Sajdeh. To amp up the game, they are joined by three new faces from Delhi: Riddhima Sahni Kapoor, Kalyani Saha Chawla and Shalini Passi. 

Fabulous Wives VS Bollywood Wives S3: The Plot

Season 3 unleashes an intelligent attempt at showcasing the privileged Delhi batch and how the non-Bollywood wives are even more fabulous. In addition to money, the Delhi wives also have class, depth and yes, perspective!

So the story begins with a party in Delhi, more like a grand display of dramatic meet and greets. The theme was: Straight Out Of A Painting. Our Bombay girls were invited. Not to reveal much, but there were many digs made at each other by these walking-talking paintings. These digs and several others made throughout the starting episodes get out in the open, courtesy of Karan Johar. 

Now the battleground was set, and the rivalry thickened episode after episode but the plot was thin, as always!

This will keep you hooked

We also get a glimpse of the loving Bollywood, the happy-go-lucky and pro-dramatic Bollywood this season. The dharmatisation of the KC (Karva Chauth, Bhavna says it's way cooler this way) with Hindi songs playing in the background and the group's bhangra dance that followed will get you in full festive spirits. 

Another thing that will click for you is the Bollywood Husbands' humour. From Sanjay jokingly saying sorry to Late Rishi Kapoor for a cute revelation by Riddhima to Chunky embarrassing daughter Ananya as he reveals he unleashes plenty of "love attacks" on her mother, it was a delightful dad-joke fest. 

Speaking of Chunky Panday, he also gave a theory of "Reverse Nepotism." He says how her daughter has already surpassed his legacy in the movies. He feels that when people see her they must think, "Agar Ananya act kar sakti hai, to Chunky bhi kar leta hoga."

Watch out for this

The latest season welcomed some new faces but the drama, same old, same old! 

In the show Maheep talks about forced friendships and how they are a burden, that's what the bond and obsession with the show was starting to feel like for the audience. Owning privilege, entitlement and a dozen Louis Vuitton and Gucci wardrobe was fun to watch but now the audience is asking- what else?

Other than this, the show is built on the idea of women's empowerment and celebrating the lives of moderately famous, middle-aged women. But a dialogue by Maheep seems to attack the rock on which the show is built. The scene follows a post by a journalist in Delhi praising other women and sharing her opinion on the 'Bollywood Wives.' Maheep ridicules by saying "What is this? Women Empowerment Wooohoooo Women Empowerment Wooohoooo." Not a smart move, because if you snatch the veil of empowering and supporting women from your show, we really don't know what it contains. 

Another such incident is when Bhavana is invited back to her college and asked what she learnt from her study in the field of commerce there, she replies, "financially manipulating my husband." Probably meant in the jester, the statement rings far from empowerment. Towards the end, it felt that none of the women are in the mood to add anything new to the conversation except for the dull, boring clichés.  

Watch Fabulous Lives vs Bollywood Wives on Netflix. Views expressed by the author are their own.