Synopsis
Decoupled – Despite the fact that the serial starring R Madhavan and Surveen Chawla is about a couple’s breakup, the series’ controlling consciousness is that of its creator. As a result, you’ll either adore it or despise it.
Review
To enjoy the juicy sections of the eight-episode series directed by Hardik Mehta, you must be aware of the brand Manu Joseph has developed from his reputation as an unsentimental writer.
Though Decoupled is about the disintegration of a “misanthropic” and equally controversial writer Aarya Iyer (R Madhavan) and his wife Shruti Sharma (Surveen Chawla) marriage, Joseph is the series’ controlling consciousness. As a result, the series will elicit two extreme reactions: either you will adore it or you will despise it, just like his articles.
As Joseph would argue, these are unsettling realities. He’ll also persuade you that there are benefits to being a victim. All of this isn’t to imply that Decoupled isn’t enjoyable. Simply said, the lack of an unifying objective in the way each episode is structured makes it appear self-indulgent. To add insult to injury,
It is centred on Aarya, who is a writer. If you consider Chetan Bhagat’s cameo and the fact that he is India’s “best-selling author,” there are really two.
The innate, dry humour that attacks the system of mind is certainly Decoupled’s strongest feature. Madhavan, on the other hand, isn’t a greater Manu Joseph character than Joseph himself. He comes off as inflexible at times and doesn’t appear to reflect his character’s caustic attitude; the sentences don’t help either. They seem too scholarly, and you get the impression that this would have worked better as an audio book. “Your book club regards male members as second class citizens, even though they are feminists,” a political economist remarks in the first episode.
Take, for example, this. Given that they are still “legally” married, Aarya asks Shruti to elaborate on the term when she asks who she is meeting. “If you die under inexplicable circumstances, I will be the leading suspect,” he says. When these two subtly excellent phrases are said out loud, they don’t have the same effect. Throughout the series, dialogues feel more like they were written for a novel than for the screen.
The primary problem with Decoupled is how similar it sounds to those who are familiar with Joseph’s work. He rejects masculine feminists and economists, as you are aware. You already know he believes Parasite is a bad movie. You understand his rage at the system’s elite when it becomes an underclass in another system.
When Aarya ponders the purpose of barriers on Indian roadways or the function of CISF security in airports, all of this baggage hinders the characters from coming alive as people; instead, they appear more like puppets.
Though the objective may have been to create a comedy of errors in which its main protagonists Aarya and Shruti find themselves and learn something new about themselves, the series lacks a strong core to keep it together in a cohesive manner. We have a claustrophobic sensation of being stuck within Joseph’s thoughts for the most part, and we’re not sure if that’s a good place to be.
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