Big Girls Don’t Cry REVIEW: Pooja Bhatt is the sole reason one can watch this otherwise mediocre teen school drama

Film:
Big Girl's Don't Cry

Director: Nitya Mehra

Star Cast: Pooja Bhatt, Avantika Vandanapu, Aneet Padda, Dalai, Vidushi, Lhakyila, Afrah Sayed, and Akshita Sood, Raima Sen, Zoya Hussain, and Mukul Chadda

Runtime: 45-47 minutes per episode

Platform: Amazon Prime Video

Big Girls Don’t Cry review

Apart from romance, thrillers, and murder mysteries, content around teenage students’ lives are also available on OTT. Kota Factory, Crash Course, Hostel Daze, and Engineering Girls among several series have streamed. While some showcased how exam pressure bogs down students, some revolve around the fun-filled days the youngsters experience. Here we have Big Girls Don’t Cry that centres around the lives of 7 school girls and how they navigate who they are. During their formative years. Read on the review to know more

Storyline

BGDC revolves around the lives of 7 girls named Roohi, Noor, Leah Joseph aka Ludo, Pluggy, Jayshree aka JC, Kavya and Dia Malik. It begins with introducing the lives of students at girls hostel Vandana Valley Boarding Schools and principal Anita Verma questioning Who Are You? as she motivates all to create an identity in their formative years. We are then introduced to these free-spirited girls attempting to achieve goals while battling their inhibitions and celebrating sisterhood.

To begin with, Kavya (Vidushi) comes from a comparatively conservative background yet fits to the standard of an elite boarding school group. We are further introduced to Roohi (Aneet Padda) who despite hailing from an affluent background wishes to run away from her home as she is troubled by her parent’s fights. She shares a close bond with JC (Lhakyila) and the two end up falling in love with the same guy. Then comes Noor (Afrah Sayed) who wants to drop her surname to gain US visa. While Ludo (Avantika) shies away from embracing she is a lesbian, Pluggy ( Dalai) has FOMO of being a virgin. How these girls with their love, support and friendship rise in life lies in the series.

Highlights

Emotionally relatable: The kind of emotions these girls go through in their formative years and the questions they raise about society’s narrow-mindedness are quite relatable factors. From fitting into a group you probably find is a misfit, to embracing identity and dealing with self-doubt, the series attempts to tap into these emotions quite nicely.

Subtleness rather than preachiness: While they have showcased topics like LGBTQ, surname not being the identity, or belonging from different strata of society, Nitya has touched these aspects without being preachy and unnecessarily dragging a conversation on it.

Naari vs super Naari act: A specific scene that stands out from the series is the annual day act. Where Dia Malik attempts to convey that a woman can’t be super until they stick to a man. From dialogue delivery to the skit representing some of the fierce women our nation witnessed, it is wonderfully executed.

Drawback

Inconsistent screenplay: The 7 episodic series tries to weave in several factors and wants to show every aspect of a high school. After a point, it turns out to be a yawn affair as many subplots are running and none of them add any value to the movie. It seems like Nitya wants to focus on various factors but unfortunately, none worked or created an impact. What is happening at what point, you just don’t understand. Also, they jump so much with the many characters that you lose track. At one point the girls are seen having good points and suddenly they succumb to distress around.

Lack of depth: While she is focusing lives of 7 girls, we clearly do not get a background of everyone. We are only acquainted with the emotional turmoil they go through, but where does it stems from seems missing. That’s why at the end the series leaves us with a question mark as to why certain things happened. For instance, Kavya is seen miffed with her mother and running away from her, but why does she behave, why are Roohi’s parents attempting to behave perfectly when they are not? Well, in the end, none of the characters leave you with an impact, it just feels like you are lost in a complicated maze.

The no-novelty factor: While the series attempts to celebrate friendship and sisterhood to the fullest it offers nothing new. It seems like old wine in a new bottle with different and increased characters.

Duration: The episodes are longer than they should be, while every episode is 50 minutes plus, it can easily be brought down to 35 to 40 minutes. Even the number of episodes can be reduced.

Star performances

Talking about performances among the ensemble cast, none of them deliver a memorable performance. A talent like Pooja Bhatt is just reduced to make a blink-and-miss typical principal kind of appearance. As Anita Verma, her character had several shades, but none of them were rightly explored. Talking about the girls, Avantika Vandanapu, Aneet Padda, Dalai, Vidushi, Lhakyila, Afrah Sayed, and Akshita Sood put forward fine acts. They seem to have a gala time and that’s quite palpable. They were comfortable in portraying the inhibitions and social stigmas with conviction. But unfortunately, none of them leaves a mark. Raima Sen is noticeable in her role. The rest of the cast, deliver what they are expected.

Conclusion

Overall, Big Girls Don’t Cry turns out to be yet another teenager drama that neither leaves an impact nor enthrals one. While it may remind you of the endearing times with your girl gang, it’s the lack of authenticity that certainly mars down the impact. If you are missing your friends a little more and wish to revisit your school, the series can be watchable in a fast-forward mode.

Watch the Big Girls Don’t Cry trailer after reading the review

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