'Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives' Season 2 review: Lots to unpack

Fabulous lives of Bollywood wives: Season 2

Cast: Maheep Kapoor, Bhavana Pandey, Seema Sajdeh , Neelam Kothari

Score: 2.5 stars

Picture four best friends sharing the screen. Now, add some unresolved issues and a dash of drama to the mix, and you have the perfect recipe for Season 2 of the Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives.

This season is every bit glitz, glam, gaudy, and gossip - making it a perfect cringe binge.

The show primarily revolves around Maheep Kapoor (Sanjay Kapoor’s wife), Bhavana Pandey (Chunky Pandey’s wife and Ananya Pandey’s mother), Seema Sajdeh (Sohail Khan’s ex-wife) and Neelam Kothari (yes, the one from ‘The Neelam Show’ in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai); their friendships and relationships.

The season opens with the wives on a yacht spying on a wedding with binoculars and dissing the bride for her bad taste in fashion and men. Ironically, the phrase "live and let live" is used exhaustively during the season.

Read | Alia Bhatt, KJo 'drunk dialed' Vicky Kaushal before wedding with Kat

While the show most certainly gives the audience a boost of Vitamin D(rama), Season 2 explores topics that add a hint of candour to an evidently scripted reality show. Real issues, such as menopause, anti-ageing, and botox, are brought to the fore. And in an attempt to pull back the curtain even further, this season offers a glimpse into yet another beauty industry fad to apparently attaining eternal youth - this one involves extracting blood from one part of the body and injecting it into the face.

This season truly has it all: there are vow renewals taking place, surnames being changed, matches being made and just when you think the show has outdone its drama level, Seema Taparia from Mumbai makes a cameo.

But what sets this season apart from the previous season is that it now pans to the families of the women - especially the husbands who were only present in the previous season merely to add celeb value to the show. Amid the superficial glitz and gloss of Season 2, Chunky addresses how he deals with jokes and criticism that come his way and Sameer (Neelam’s husband) talks about his battle with social anxiety.

This season, Gauri Khan joins the cast. However, with no added value, no pretext, and no emotions attached, Gauri Khan’s presence just feels more like clickbait. She is portrayed as a friend of the wives and we see them desperately trying to impress her. Gauri, meanwhile, uses the show to promote her interior designing business.

Coming back to the lives of the wives, this season, we see them take a trip to Rajasthan to connect with nature, giving us a glimpse of them getting wild in the wilderness. Amid the wildlife and adventure, issues are brought up, voices are raised, tears are shed, and fights are resolved. And of course, new conflicts are brushed under the carpet probably to be unpacked as next season's plot.

It is refreshing to see the women much more in focus this season: Neelam restarts her career, Maheep decides to start a YouTube channel sharing anti-ageing secrets and Seema explores street style designing for Gen-Zs and millennials.

However, the one element that this season missed out on was Shah Rukh Khan’s appearance. And no, Badshah, Bobby Deol, Jackie Shroff, Farah Khan or Ranveer Singh’s inappropriate humour does not make up for the King Khan factor missing from the show.

So that is Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives Season 2 for you! Drama? Check. Catfights? Check. Accents hitting the roof? Double check.