Eight Reasons Why Decoupled Has Created Buzz Since Its Release

Web series Decoupled is a story of a couple tangled in a dysfunctional marriage, trying to portray normalcy for the sake of their eight-year-old daughter. The R Madhavan and Surveen Chawla starrer series was released on December 17, 2021, and has been getting mixed reviews since then.

Since its release, the show has created buzz for many reasons ranging from the representation of urban hypocrisy to relationship issues between a married couple and not to forget the heated conversation between Madhavan and Indian writer Chetan Bhagat going viral over the Internet.

8 Reasons Why Decoupled Has Been So Talked About Since Its Release-

1. Usual Disintegrating of Marriage: 

Many viewers took to social media about the similar content from Netflix for the past few years where the basic tattle tale is only about a marriage that has gone wrong and the entire plot revolves around it. Be it thriller like Haseen Dilruba, or post marriage dilemmas like Meenakshi Sundareshwar, the OTT giant has been repeatedly selling the similar story line over and over again.

2. Storyline Not Matching The Expectations: 

Decoupled had set major expectation keeping in mind the potential of the casts including R Madhavan, Surveen Chawla, Mukesh Bhatt, Apara Mehta, writer Manu Joseph and director Hardik Mehta who himself has been associated many award winning movies like Trapped, Forbidden City. The series failed to impress the audience while Madhavan kept repeating "child-like" mistakes throughout the series. It appears as if scenes are just a misfit for an adult audience.

3. Addresses The Urban Hypocrisy: 

The show brings to limelight the situation wherein many privileged class people try to talk about empowering the poor. The economist in the show, Mr. Basu, tries to portray himself as the "messiah of the poor", however, at home, both him and his mother humiliate the housemaid for using the same bathroom as them and say "Ye sahab log ka bathroom nahi ganda karna hai".

Similarly, when Mr. Basu tries to act as woke for "environment day", he is been pointed by Aarya Iyer(R. Madhavan) that the "one who takes cab for going small distance should not talk of saving the fuel or planet".

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4. Body Shaming:

The writer Manu Joseph is well known for his provocations and his satires that have often failed to brought him backlash. The male lead Aarya Iyer played by R. Madhavan tries horribly body shames women in the series.  He tries to prove a illogical point to his wife Shruti Iyer(Surveen Chawla) by bringing his "sexy" ex-girlfriend at a party . However, as soon as he realises that she is not "that hot" after her marriage as he assumed her to be, he starts panicking.

5. Misogynistic Remarks: 

The issues like hairy armpit repelling men, jokes on MeToo movement while taking about sex, stigmatising masturbation did not go well for the progressive audience. On a serious issue like MeToo, the jokes can be nothing less than hurting to many survivours who mustered the courage to point out the issue of sexual assault in public.

When the women around the world are trying to dispel thoughts that armpit hairs are unattractive through campaigns, Aarya Iyer leaves his partner in the middle of date on seeing her armpit hair. Additionally, suspecting a young woman ready to sleep with a middle aged men like him to be a prostitute was nothing but appalling.

6. Objection To the Namaz Scene:

The scene where R Madhavan enters a praying room to stretch and exercise has drawn much flak. Netizens called out how Muslims were mocked by the male lead. While few users find that scene is a nod to the Hindus to go around and disrupt the namaz offerings, others felt that it is just a satire that has been taken in a wrong sense.

7.Prevalent Caste System:

The driver apparently "smells really bad" and the lead couple find it offensive to tell him that. However, as soon as Aarya Iyer tells him about it, the driver leaves the job and goes back to his village. When the couple start missing their driver who was with them since long, they go to his village to bring him back. The driver explains that he belongs to a higher caste when Aarya rejects the plate of fritters offered to him.

8. Emotional Angle From The Least Expected: 

While the show approaches the end and the couple throws a decoupled party together in Goa, their driver(played by Mukesh Bhatt) who has been with them in their journey of marriage explains their history of marriage. He quotes, "Fighting means the marriage is still driving and silence means marriage has stopped".

The couple tried their best throughout the series not to hurt the sentiments of their young girl who would be left heartbroken after the divorce. At the end, their daughter, accepts the fact that her parents are separating and it's quite okay to see both of them differently.