Four More Shots Please!: Flawed, relatable, beautiful

Four More Shots Please! - The beauty in the imperfections 

In the final episode of Season 2 of ‘Four More Shots Please!’ when expressing his love for Damini (Sayani Gupta), Jeh (Prateik Babbar) says “You confuse me, you exasperate me. You’ve messed my head up Damini, and I like it”. This sentence sums up pretty well the way I feel about this show. The show is not perfect. It’s frustrating at certain points, enjoyable at others. However, it is the flaws that make it more authentic and gets you hooked.

‘Four More Shots Please!’ is the story of 4 best friends who are each-other’s lifelines. The show doesn’t try to create an unrealistic façade of perfection. These are 4 flawed and imperfect women who learn to embrace their imperfections and live life to its fullest. They deal with the constant curveballs that life throws at each one of them all the while standing by each other’s side. For such a show to work, the most important thing is that the friendship of the 4 leads look real. Luckily for the director, the 4 women, Kriti Kulhari, Sayani Gupta, Maanvi Gagroo and Bani J form a bond that feels authentic and lived in, leaving the audience rooting for them.

There are a number of great performances this season. Kirti Kulhari and Sayani Gupta manage to bite their teeth into their characters perfectly. Depicting the two more egoistic, settled and driven characters, Anjana and Damini, the actors manage to nicely balance their vulnerabilities with the drive and desire. Season 2 is a coming of age season for Maanvi Gagroo’s character, Siddhi. Maanvi showcases that transition from a highly protected, spoilt, rich SoBo girl to a girl trying to find her wings to fly in an extremely simplistic and relatable manner.  Bani J’s story in this season revolves more around her love life and she is probably the weakest of the 4 characters. This is mostly a result of the script material she has to work with. However, she does try her best to make her conflicts as convincing as possible.

Apart from the 4 girls, there were 3 performances that especially stood out for me. Jeh, the hunk bartender played by Prateik Babbar, is one of my favourite characters on the show. Prateik managed to show the emotion of a  man deeply in love but too scared to trust someone who has hurt him before, in an extremely subtle and hard-hitting manner. Samir Kochhar, playing a sleazy big shot lawyer who is in a no strings attached relationship with Kriti Kulhari, is in good form too. However, my favourite performance this season was definitely Shibani Dandekar’s. Playing an ambitious women who discovers that her husband is cheating on her, Shibani brings the right amount of ferocity and bitchy attitude, coupled with a sense of despair and unease.

Costume and music play a major role in the show. The girl’s costumes throughout the show are impeccable. Whether they are sitting on Marine Drive or attending a wedding, they are wearing some of the most-flashy dresses. While this is entertaining at times, there are other instances where it just seems out of place and takes away from the effect and emotion the dialogues are trying to create. The music is one of the weaker aspects of the show. The directors attempt to capture the emotion of the scene with the background music; however, this gets slightly repetitive and irritating.

The direction and writing are a mixed bag. While the writing  is slightly cliché and predictable at points, the writers and director try their best to ground the problems in reality. The issues that the 4 girls face are relevant and common. This is a big plus for the series and helps getting the audience invested. Human being’s bond over their problems and when you have 4 girls trying to battle love, heartbreak, body shaming and other everyday issues, then the crowd is bound to be entertained. Also, a major plus for the series and the female dominated crew is that the natural bond between the creators allowed them to understand the nuances and create a friendship bond that came across as authentic, real and emotional.

‘Four More Shots Please!’ is not a perfect show. Far from it in fact. It has its flaws and a considerable amount of them. However, it is relatable and enjoyable and allows you to celebrate the highs and lows of life and friendship. While the show is overly negative at times, it’s a testament to the fact that life isn’t always roses and often doesn’t follow the plans that we make. Life isn’t perfect but we still live it to the fullest so it’s fine if the show isn’t perfect. In line with the idea of the show, accept the imperfections and see the beauty that lies within.

- Ahaan Gupta