Love — painful yet glorious — is the focus of Broken But Beautiful, an 11-episode series produced by Ekta Kapoor that will make you smile and bring a lump to your throat in equal parts. Some of it may be wobbly, but this well-acted series is worth a watch.
It stars Vikrant Massey as Veer, a commitment-phobic man with anger management issues who clings on to his dead wife’s memories and refuses to move on. Veer thinks he’s “damaged goods”, but realises that Sameera (Harleen Sethi), dumped unceremoniously by Veer’s cousin after a five-year relationship, is even more psychologically battered than he is.
Their common pain brings them together — “doppelganger souls” is what they call each other — and even as Veer helps Sameera heal, he learns to heal himself.
What works
That ‘we too’ feeling
Heartbreak is a great leveller and Veer and Sameera could be any of us. The themes of not wanting to let go, self-destruction in love, blaming oneself for a break-up and being wary of commitment after a bad relationship are relatable and the show deals with all of these with both intensity and a lightness of touch.
We’ve all had our hearts broken and many parts of Broken But Beautiful — especially when Sameera looks for chances to meet her ex-boyfriend or drunk-dials him almost every night — will hit close to home. Body image issues, no-strings-attached flings and the uncertainty of millennial love are the other themes.
The leads
Vikrant Massey and Harleen Sethi inhabit Veer and Sameera in a way that you feel they have been these characters all their lives. The two have palpable chemistry and help Veer and Sameera seamlessly make the transition from acquaintances to friends to something more. Vikrant, as expected, does a great job in making Veer both vulnerable and stubbornly foolish; Sameera may come off as too clingy and pitiful at times, but it’s to Harleen’s credit that she always keeps her endearing.
The ending
Love doesn’t always have to mean saying ‘I love you’. Broken… ends at Veer and Sameera deciding to discover each other one day at a time and seeing where life takes them in what is a refreshing ending, while keeping the door open for another season.
What doesn’t work
The drama
The show often lapses into the melodramatic, with some parts coming off as stage-y. The 3 Idiots-inspired delivery scene in the final episode is a downer.
Some of the side players
Sameera’s girl pals are key players in the show, but are often irritating. Actor-filmmaker Akashdeep Sabir, as Veer’s maamu, tries to play the cool uncle card but his buffoonery makes some episodes unbearable.
