Review: Man’s World, a web-series by Yash Raj Films

Divay Agarwal

With every single day, the slogan of ‘Digital India’ is gaining more and more popularity and be it filmmakers, musicians, comedy artists, politicians, social activists, everyone is encouraged to use to the power of this medium.Talking specifically about Web-Series, made popular by a very famous YouTube channel TVF, is a format that has become the new cool thing for the younger generation these days.

So to target this audience, Yash Raj Films, probably the biggest production house in India has brought out a new web-series called the “Man’s World” in partnership with United Nation’s Global Goals for Sustainable Development and is based on the issue of Gender Equality and project involves a lot of top celebrities like Richa Chadha, Parineeti Chopra, AyushmanKhurana, Bhumi Pednekar, Rhea, KalkiKoechlin and many others to make their message reach far and wide.

Man’s World is the story of a man called Kiran (Gaurav Pandey), who is frustrated with the whole concept of feminism and wishes for the world to flip and his wish is fulfilled. What happens next when this ‘Purush Pradhan Samaaj’ changes to an ‘Aurat Pradhan Samaaj’?

The web-series presents the plight of a women though Kiran’s story when his world changes upside down, he begins to understand the deeper problems which a woman faces be it safety, eve teasing, appreciation in the society or the pain from periods. But what really stands out is the fact that the makers have opted for humor as the medium to address these issues and I must say they have done it very well.

Though the idea is inspired by a French short film called Majoritéopprimée, but the way the director and writers have adapted it to Indian styles and the little detailing they have worked to create the woman’s world is very impressive. The song Kamli changes to Kamla, Daya from CID becomes Diya, the reserved seats in the woman dominated trains and buses are for males, the porn video which the female police inspector watches are all very funny elements. The situations faced by Kiran in homes, buses, offices, late night parties, police stations, marriage are very well crafted and give a clear sense of what a girl has to go through.

The writing is witty, the characters are very interesting and the series is short and crisp but what probably doesn’t work out for is the episodic sense which didn’t came through and it was more of a 1 hour long movie and that’s why I haven’t reviewed it episodically. Secondly, the episodes were very short and there was too much to say, so the story on the whole suffered due to lack of layering as the characters didn’t have the time to be established and their journeys didn’t came through. Although, the actors did really well with the limitations involved.

In all, this series is a must watch for every boy for it makes you question your beliefs, and for every girl because you are sure going to have a loads of fun. The message it conveys loud and clear is the world we are living in should not be reversed or be like this, but should be fixed for it to attain true gender quality!

Rating: 3.5/5.0