Four More Shots Please’s imperfect vulnerable but unwaveringly solid ladies are back for another season of the program, striving to make their way in life and love and weathering all the spills and slips that come with it. Their squabbles and escapades add up to another exciting episode of drama, excitement, and comedy.
Their struggles and victories want and disappointments, clashes, solidarities, statements, and concessions all contribute to an excellently fascinating season that thrives on a range of emotions.
Starting on a somber note, Amazon Prime Video‘s Four More Shots Please! Season 3 is as much about sadness and ecstasy, loss and pain, as it is about the joys of friendship.
As in the previous two seasons, the girls’ journey to self-fulfillment is littered with barriers. Following major emotional setbacks, the foursome – idealistic journalist Damini Rizvi Roy (Sayani Gupta), ambitious lawyer Anjana Menon (Kirti Kulhari), fitness trainer Umang Singh (Bani J), and stand-up comedian Siddhi Patel (Maanvi Gagroo) – have their hands full dealing with challenges that stretch them to breaking point.
The unstoppable girl gang tackles their ambitions and denials to overcome the setbacks that threaten to leave them with shaken nerves and profound wounds. But, having lost none of their tenacity, they are determined to keep together and prosper. They keep going even when things don’t always go their way.
Damini, Anjana, Umang, and Siddhi are clearly autonomous women who live in a monetarily comfortable, if not privileged, cocoon, but the screenplay does not hold them to unreasonably high standards. They are regular people. They stumble, falter, and fulminate, yet they retain their cool even when under emotional strain. That is what makes the four such a well-rounded and convincing collection of ladies.
When things start to get out of hand, the four have their relationship to fall back on. They understand the costs of mucking things up, but they are also capable of picking themselves up and marching on. So, in Season 3 of Four More Shots Please! simply more of the same as Seasons 1 and 2?
There are a few components in the program that aren’t new, but as the tale of Anjana, Damini, Siddhi, and Umang progresses, there are enough shocks to keep us hooked. These ladies with the guts to keep going no matter what life throws at them are a sight for sore eyes and an injection of vitamins for tired spirits – just the type of personalities we need more.
The four essential women behind the program, creator Rangita Pritish Nandy, writer Devika Bhagat, dialogue writer Ishita Moitra, and director Joyeeta Patpatia, make no big blunders, unlike the quartet on the screen. They take advantage of the unlimited possibilities given by the women who are toughing it out and holding their own in a world that is unwilling to give them any quarter.
It’s not like they’re asking for anything. The men in their life aren’t all monsters, but the majority of them contribute to the difficulties that plague the four companions. Anjana, who views herself as a “perfect friend and imperfect mother,” has to deal with her befuddled ex-husband Varun (Neil Bhoopalam) and her aloof law firm colleague Shashank (Samir Kochhar), neither of whom help her.
Damini, who is still tormented by the tragedy of a miscarriage, must manage the wild ups and downs of her relationship with Jeh (Prateik Babbar), the proprietor of Truck Bar, the girls’ Central Perk, their go-to watering establishment when the chips are down and they need to fortify themselves.
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Damini is hired as an adviser by Dhananjay Deshmukh (Rohan Mehra), a young politician searching for a makeover and a clean break from his party’s controversial philosophy after being barred from the media sector. As Jeh begins to distrust Damini’s new task, the professional and personal clash.
Umang Singh, who walked away from the altar, leaving Bollywood starlet Samara behind, is struggling to overcome feelings of remorse and sorrow. She intends to create a fitness center. She meets Meher (Shilpa Shukla), a baker, and employs Sean, a yoga instructor (Jim Sarbh). Can one of them be a long-term cure for her broken heart?
Siddhi Patel, who is grappling with her father’s early death and the possibility of her 48-year-old mother Sneha (Simone Singh) going on with her life, offers Umang a hand when she needs money for her company. But Siddhi, who is only a few weeks away from turning 25, confronts her own set of difficulties.
Please, four more shots! S3 devotes a whole episode to Holi celebrations, complete with the usual abundance of bhang, fun, frolic, and gulaal. When you add reflection and the desire for self-awareness to the mix, you have a season that encompasses far more than simply the sensual and emotional.
This season of Four More Shots Please! offers a dynamic mix of subjects that mostly avoid formulaic tropes. Break-ups and patch-ups, ends and renewals, guilt and atonement, exultations, and let-downs keep the show afloat.
Even an episode set in a lovely Italian hamlet, where the program veers into dreamy YRF and Dharma territory, and a climactic moment at a Mumbai airport departure gate, a venue for what the character involved admits is “a hackneyed rom-com airport confession,” are delivered with cynicism couched in humor.
What the show’s creators accomplish very well is balance the four main characters by spreading out the footage in such a manner that no one character benefits more than the others. The major performers, used to the routine, give their all in this female-led rom-com that fully relies on them.
While they are all excellent, Maanvi Gagroo, whose role matures this season, has a little edge over the rest of the ensemble. Sayani Gupta hits all the right notes in a performance that spans a range of emotions and necessitates constancy of quality.
Bani J and Kirti Kulhari aren’t far behind. Not to mention Simone Singh, who exudes poise and control. The returning males in the cast – Prateik Babbar, Neil Bhoopalam, and Samir Kochhar – are solid, but Jim Sarbh and Sushant Singh, who play characters that could use more film, are also excellent newcomers.
Please review Four Shots More! S3 would be incomplete without a line from Mikey McCleary’s music score: pleasant, full of vigor, and never out of tune with the spirit of the show. The songs are an extension of the scenes: they augment the spoken lines in ways that heighten their impact and highlight the narrative’s various moods.
Four More Shots Please! It clearly has a lot of wind remaining in its sails. As Season 3 concludes with the girls setting New Year’s resolutions, one can’t help but wonder what life will have in store for them when they’re a year or two older. Nothing is more demanding than that.
