Mumbai is a ‘City of Dreams’. The youth, from every part of the country, comes here to make it big. But the financial hub is riddled with its own set of challenges for the youth.
The skyrocketing rents, the heightened expenses, the upgraded lifestyle, and to top it off, a job, that doesn’t quite include a pay cheque that supports all the above-mentioned expenses.
Only for Singles is an MX Player original, that has gone live since June 28. Director Samar Sheikh has captured the problems faced by ‘Generation Z’ in the 13-part web series, and imparted a liberal slice of humour.
The storyline
The 13-part series explores the problems faced by these flatmates, and how they manage to stay afloat in a city like Mumbai. Above all, without compromising on the glitz and glamour.
Ranjeeta also known as RJ (Deepti Sati) is a young girl with keen business acumen. She desperately tries to get into her father’s real estate business, in the hope of starting something of her own.
Her father displays a lack of trust compelling Ranjeeta to get out of her house, and start on her own. She seeks refuge in buildings built by her own father, but which are disputed.
This girl, who also has a heart of gold, gathers people who are single and are struggling to pay their rents. She is being the Good Samaritan to the flatmates, who rent the flat out for free.
Ranjeeta’s flatmates include Mickey (Vivaan Shah), who is a call-centre executive but an artist at heart. Law intern Apu (Pooja Banerjee), an intelligent, opinionated and only child who is unfortunately a bit of an idiot. Rapchik (Shirin Sewani) is a social media star.
She is basking in the glory of her new found fame with the growing number of ‘likes’ she procures on social media. She is also the quintessential struggling actor, becoming an all out glam doll.
Last but not the least, Harman (Gulshan Nain) and junior chef Riyaaz (Aman Uppal) who aspires to start his own food truck. The lives of these budding youngsters have problems, that they try sorting out with some fun involved.
The flip side
While the plot is an interesting one, and is something that our youth, and some family would like to see, the jokes fall flat occasionally, owing to the discounted comic timing. The balance among the actors is a bit patchy, delivering viewers a discounted version of the actual plot.
The pluses
The cinematography is good. Extra brownie points can be rendered to the production team who have paid attention to detail by underlining little aspects on the sets and also about the characters to make it more real and relatable all the same. One should also give the story-writer some credit, for writing an enlivening storyline that is relatable and fun.
End note
All in all, this could be a series that can have one looking forward to the second part as well. Owing to the cinematic pitfalls the rating is severely discounted for a 2/5. But a certain learning experience to all aspiring youth, throwing light on the challenges one can face.
