There is something very exciting about stories centred around the intertwined lives of strong and financially independent women friends—especially in urbane, corporate setups—who stand up for one another, have each other's back, bitch, binge, and navigate personal and professional loops together.
In that context, Hush Hush on Amazon Prime is a winner. In its very first episode, as we are introduced to the “hot, happening and highly eventful” lives of four well heeled women based in Gurugram, the viewers may be reminded of the narratives around equally well-placed women in Four More Shots or that of the luxe lives of four women in Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives or the foursome in Big Little Lies on HBO. The first three episodes of Hush Hush draw you in; there is a thrill in following the complicated, grey lives of these women who stand united in keeping a secret even as they are weighed down by the expectations they have from each other. From the fourth episode, the narrative shifts, gets stretchy, predictable and turns into a laborious watch.
Juhi Chawla's Ishi is a PR professional and a power broker, Soha Ali Khan as Saiba is a former journalist who gives up her job to start a family, Kritika Kamra's Dolly is married to an infertile man in a Punjabi household where she is under pressure to provide an heir, Shahana Goswami as Zaira, is a fashion designer who is straddling between her love life and work life. The performances are all above par but the script lacks the 'masala' essential to grip the viewer. We want to know what happens as the women go about negotiating relationships and professional commitments and in between all that, how they guard closely kept secret, but what we actually get is a vanity and melodrama filled storyline that fails to keep us hooked.
Co-directed by Tanuja Chandra, Kopal Naithani and Ashish Pandey, Hush Hush runs at a slow pace and the dialogues by Juhi Chaturvedi, tickle neither the mind nor the bone. The investigation, headed by a feisty female cop, Geeta (Karishma Tanna) starts out well, but wavers and even digresses from the plot several times.
Hush Hush has everything one could expect in a women-centric potboiler: there is a reference to trafficking, shelter home, love and romance, infidelity and the familial relationship saga. However, the screenplay feels slow and boorish. When a heartbroken Ishi and Zaira handle the disposing off of a dead body in the stillness of the night, one sees sisterhood and professional camaraderie. But we would also have liked to see from where these women hail, what leads to their mental and emotional turmoil and what justifies the positions they hold. Sadly, the narrative skips all of this. No backgrounders are attached to the stories of the leading ladies, all of who have given powerful performances and done justice to their experience and expertise. If only the script was a winner.
Hush Hush cast: Juhi Chawla, Shahana Goswami, Kritika Kamra, Soha Ali Khan, Karishma Tanna, Vibha Chibber
Hush Hush directors: Tanuja Chandra, Kopal Naithani and Ashish Pandey
Rating: 2/5
