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Bombay Begums · Season 1 · Netflix

Bombay Begums Season 1

Bombay Begums Season 1 is a WORTH-IT, BollyMeter 6.5/10. 6 episodes on Netflix from 8 March 2021.

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BollyMeter6.5/10An 83% Rotten Tomatoes score from 12 critics marked it as one of Netflix India's more credibly reviewed originals; IMDb's 4.9 reflects audience polarisation over the show's treatment of teen storylines.

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What BollyAI Thinks

Released on International Women's Day, March 8, 2021, Bombay Begums arrived with director Alankrita Shrivastava's established feminist credentials already establishing expectations. Critics broadly responded to it: an 83-percent Rotten Tomatoes score from 12 reviews praised the ensemble performances, particularly Pooja Bhatt's comeback and Amruta Subhash's layered work as a bar dancer. Scroll.in found the compact six-episode structure a virtue rather than a limitation. The friction came from the audience: IMDb aggregated 4.9 out of 10, partly driven by controversy over the depiction of a teenage character. The 70-percent Popcornmeter on RT suggests a warmer general audience verdict beneath the noise.

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The Room

83%critics positive · n=124.9/10IMDb audience
  • “Though its approach to complex social issues can be somewhat myopic, Bombay Begums benefits greatly from its strong cast.”
    Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus
  • “The compact and cogent series gets its soul from the spirited performances of the leading women.”
    Scroll.in

Standout Episodes

The hours worth arguing about - premieres, finales, and the turning points. BollyAI reads the room episode by episode.

  1. E1Episode 17.0

    Bombay Begums' International Women's Day premiere opens with five women in Mumbai whose lives are connected by proximity to power - corporate, political, personal - and by the specific constraints each of their contexts imposes. Pooja Bhatt's Rani, newly appointed CEO, is the series' narrative centre, but the ensemble premiere establishes all five women's situations with enough specificity to make the anthology structure feel grounded.

    The moment: Rani's first board meeting as CEO - the specific texture of being the woman who has finally reached the position, and the immediate challenge to her authority that the episode stages without melodrama.

    Full review of E1 →