Mumbai Diaries Season 2 Review: Crowded and rushed series fails to make an impact
Mumbai Diaries Season 2 Review: If the first season of the Mohit Raina-Konkona Sen Sharma show had created a sense of urgency, this time the frenzy and chaos have been heightened. Only quiet moments work.
Mumbai Diaries season 2, set during the devastating Mumbai floods, brings back familiar characters played by Mohit Raina and Konkona Sen Sharma, among others.
In a particularly chaotic moment in season 2 of Mumbai Diaries, the chief manager of Bombay General Hospital asks if he can have a minute’s respite. On this he is told, “Sir, you can get samosa. Cold coffee can be had with ice cream. But he cannot spend even a minute in Bombay General Hospital without any problem.
” This same ignorant frenzy also applies to the new series created by Nikhil Advani, which is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Clocking in at 8 episodes of approximately 45 minutes each, all wrapped up in the framework of one fateful day… this is a show that tries its best to be charming.
The more it tries to stay afloat, the more it sinks in its own murky water.
Picking up where we left off
Season 2, set during the devastating Mumbai floods in 2009, begins with a sense of excitement and takes the action forward from where the previous season left off. Dr. Kaushik Oberoi (Mohit Raina in a subtle and powerful turn) is hit with incompetence and more serious allegations.
His wife, Ananya Ghosh (Tina Desai), now heavily pregnant, worries about him. In an early scene, he suddenly faints in the midst of a medical emergency, costing him his life. The news is all about him – how 73% of the audience believes he is a criminal.
At the hospital, we also meet Dr. Oberoi’s three interns, Dr. Sujata Ajawale (Mrinmayee Deshpande), Dr. Ahaan Mirza (Satyajit Dubey) and Dr. Dia Parekh (Natasha Bhardwaj) – who soon get their own sets. Will work together. Problems, each more promiscuous than the other.
Then there’s Dr. Chitra Das (played with credible complexity by Konkona Sen Sharma), director of social services at Bombay General Hospital, who gets a blast from her past with the arrival of a certain Dr. Saurav Chandra (Parambrata Chattopadhyay). Is. Cue him nailing a British accent very well).
The ground has slipped from under Chitra’s feet, she has no time to care about the fact that Ahaan has got two tickets for a show of Love Aaj Kal. Sad. As the rains wreak havoc on the city and its citizens are in danger, the hospital has become a hell with multiple patients, operations and revelations at the same time.
weakest links
With so many characters and their individual stories to tell, Mumbai Diaries cuts from one to the next, withholding information whenever needed. Writers Yash Chettija and Persis Sodawaterwala focus on revolving around the multiple threads of these characters.
The persistence with which the series tries to give each character their own individual arc comes through in the details. Some of them land, while most don’t. The entire back-and-forth between Ahaan, Chitra and Saurav is, in a way, the weakest link in the overall structure of the narrative – somehow sticks out like a sore thumb.
Add in the whole subplot of news anchor Mansi Hirani who has to report breaking news against her will. His frustration is never felt, and his track becomes a tangent in the middle of a predictable path. Shreya Dhanwantri’s presence is never felt amidst the excessive editing done by Mahir Zaveri.
Mohit Raina is the main attraction
The main struggle with Mumbai Diaries this season is that it never quite hits the middle ground between individual plot points versus the larger structure of a hospital fighting to make its own ends meet.
Rather than turn its gaze to broken systems and the unnerving sense of danger looming every passing minute, the show finds its concern in personal outbursts and dramatic revelations. Take for example the entire subplot revolving around a nurse trying to steal medicines from a store.
Or it involves deliberately bringing many children to the hospital. Thankfully, some moments land with resonant force. The entire subplot involving Dr. Kaushik, and the subsequent sequence where he finally finds Ananya, is really powerful. Mohit Raina’s performance – sad and vulnerable, is the real highlight of the show.
However Mumbai Diaries stretches beyond its limits here in the sequel. Covering multiple threads, the show never takes a moment to breathe. Some of the interpersonal conflicts are given a lot of time to develop, which slows down the tragedy somewhat.
The larger framework of the climate crisis, an imaginary ecosystem of media consumerism, and the state of the health care system have never been given the spotlight. Subjects conceal their own realities. His concerns are met with a sense of predictable resolution, in all its dramatic details, by the end.
The show focuses on its brand of self-reliant awareness.