Broken But Beautiful 3 web series review: cliché Tale of love, lust, heartbreak and romance

Byline By – Balkrishna

Agastya Rao (Sidharth Shukla) is a struggling theatre director, who is brash, temperamental and often self-destructive. Rumi Desai (Sonia Rathee) is a rich young woman, who is forever resentful, unfulfilled and obsessing over her childhood crush Ishaan (Ehan Bhat). Both are flawed in their own ways. They start off on the wrong foot, but that doesn’t stop them from hooking up with each other almost immediately. Soon, the simmering sexual tension between them gives way to complex
emotions, insecurities and unimaginable heartache.

As far as stories go, season 3 of ‘Broken But Beautiful’ (B3) follows a formulaic nafrat pyaar ki pehli seedi kinda route, but in execution, it’s every bit the contemporary millennial show, set in Mumbai. The characters throw in ample cuss words and slangs to justify their coolness. The core of the story is simple, but it repeatedly tries to capture all the shenanigans of modern-day love and longing in a very upscale and affluent setting, by force-feeding us characters that don’t come across as real. They just try too hard to be real.

So then what works? The music is soulful and goes very well with the emotional fabric that the show aims to achieve. The lead actors give their best shot despite surface-level writing of their characters. Sidharth Shukla uses his swag and attitude to play the arrogant Agastya, who is often too blunt for no adequate reason. Ehan Bhat is charming as the suave Ishaan and is very convincing in his role. But it’s Sonia Rathee, who makes Rumi, the life of the show. Drop-dead gorgeous and confident, Sonia plays her unnecessarily complex character with ease. Vikrant Massey has a surprise cameo and how we wish there was more of him.

Despite many characters and a few plot-lines forced in, the pace remains consistent. While the writers often include these characters and plots just to make the show look cooler and contemporary, some depth and detailing could go a long way.

But sometimes it’s fun to watch beautiful faces in a glossy set-up where privileged characters rue about problems that often seem like non-issues. All in all, there’s ample beauty in ‘B3’ season 3, but also a lot that can be fixed.