REVIEW WEB SERIES RITI RIWAJ –WATER WIVES (ULLU &MXPlayer)

Producer- Ullu

Director- Ritesh Kumar

Star Cast- Sanni Singh, Payal, Ankita Bhattacharya, Yugant Pandey and Vipul Gupta

Genre-Erotic Social

Rating- ***

Message Oriented One Time Watch

Jyothi Venkatesh

The two part story of the web series is about a middle aged villager Bhagatram, who decides to marry a second time even while his wife (Shanta) is living with him during the harrowing period when rural India is suffering from the acute shortage of water. He is compelled to do this because Shanta is fed up with doing all her household chores, the main one being to tread for miles together to fetch water for her household activities.

Unfortunately for Bhagatram, the second wife (Veena) meets with an accident and he has no other alternative but to marry Maya a third time, because Shanta does not want to take up the chore of fetching water for the house again. However, a lustful; neighbor of his (Pakya) is actually keeping a lustful eye on all his three wives with an avowed motive of seducing whoever is vulnerable and rapes and kills Veena.

While Yugant Pandey is just about okay as the old villager Bhagatram, Payal and Ankita Bhattacharya score as Shanta and Veena, the first as well as second wife of Bhagatram while it is Vipul Gupta who plays Pakya the villain who shows his flair to display different shades of his, as an actor.

The mini series sets out to drive home a poignant message that in the name of tradition it is wrong in today’s society to flaunt three wives just because one is not able to walk all the way to the well in the village to draw water for the household. This particular season sets out to revolve around a woman who is sexually unsatisfied by her husband who has to satisfy all three of his wives and hence her quest to fulfill her sexual needs. Indian society does not openly speak about a woman's needs as it is considered to be taboo but this series attempts to step into the genre and sets out to break stereotypes.

To sum up, this web series is indeed a one time watch for the way the director has deftly tackled the series, making you sit glued to your seats by striking the right balance between erotica and emotions of the wives, though the production is quite tacky and hurried as it has just a one line story which has been stretched into two episodes