Hello Mini Season 3(MX Player, Applause Entertainment: 10 Episodes)
Starring: Anuja Joshi, Mrinal Dutt, Directed by Faruk Kabir
Rating: ***
The stalkers’ franchise is now 3 seasons old and going by the emotional hijinks of the last episode there is more to come. I am not surprised . Hello Mini has a sprightly gamely aura to it, as if all the dangers that lurk in the dirty dark corners of the shitty city would automatically erase themselves by magic and Anuja’s ever-worried parents(Anujuman Saxena, Dhananjay Kapoor) can finally have one meal without worrying about their daughter’s life and virginity(in that order).
For those who have been following Rivanah Bannerjee’s bizarre adventures in Mumbai, the incidents that clutter and jostle in Season 3 should come as no surprise. Rivanah lives in a kind of psychedelic haze where she is constantly under the male gaze,some of it injurious to her health. Yes, there is a mysterious stalker this time too.What would the series be without one of those?
For novelty there is Suchitra Pillai, looking smoking-hot(when does she not??) playing some kind of a mysterious godwoman, the kind who spews gibberish and convinces believers that it is enlightening wisdom. Together with her comely assistant(Nirisha Basnett)Ms Pillai has herself a whole lot of fun doing a male version of BobbyDeol in Ashram , though her sleaziness is a lot less in-your-face.
The focus of the zigzagging storytelling remains Rivanah played with an admirable gusto by Anuja Joshi. A lot of the plot hinges on her ability to make the multitude of mind-numbing twists and turns look convincing , if not tenable. As played by Ms Joshi Rivanah is a blend of Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella with her stagecoach turning into a snazzy dimlit rave party when the clock strikes midnight.
Ms Joshi makes sure our interest in Revana’s adventurous life never flags. Her boyfriend issues with Danny Abraham(Mrinal Dutt) continue till the end. An ex-boyfriend Ekansh(Anshul Pandey) keeps dropping in to sob uncontrollably about past betrayals, making the present even more tense.
Somewhere in the middle of this curious muddle,the question of sexual harassment also pops up. Revana reminds her immediate boss that dancing drunk with him was her choice. His filming the dance was not her choice. Quite like our choice to see or not to see the stretch of untamable imaginative stabs at suburban peccadilloes that this series offers.
