What explains this sensational climb? The fact that nothing that you’ve watched on Indian TV/films captures for its urbane/metropolitan audiences the lives of the living-in/dating young in the same way.
Mithila Palkar and Dhruv Sehgal in Little Things Season 4
Little Things (Season 4)
On: Netflix
Dir: Ruchir Arun, Pranjal Dua
Cast: Mithila Palkar, Dhruv Sehgal
Rating: 3/5
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The first episode of the final season of Little Season reveals the two lead characters — Kavya (Mithila Palkar) and Dhruv (Dhruv Sehgal (also the original writer of the show) — vacationing in the backwaters of Kerala. But they’re not so much at ease, in each other’s company, which they otherwise can’t get enough anyway.
While you think (or at least I did) that this may have something to do with loss of chemistry between the actors, over time — it turns out, this onscreen discomfort is deliberate, since the two have only just returned from a long-distance relationship, lasting over a year.
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As with great friends in general — and that’s what the series is about: couples being best friends first — it doesn’t take long for them to get their mojo back. And you’re only too happy, all over again, to watch them seek random delight in the mundane; in the little things, as it were.
As does this show, all through — ever since it started with a short clip (things girlfriends/boyfriends say, or some such), with YouTube audiences leaving comments wishing to see the two characters return somehow. And therefore a full series got green-lit, graduating to the global platform Netflix eventually; and into its fourth season, finally!
What explains this sensational climb? The fact that nothing that you’ve watched on Indian TV/films captures for its urbane/metropolitan audiences the lives of the living-in/dating young in the same way.
Not as Sex and the City floozies, or the nth ‘coming of age’ story — just the way life is, as is; in an unshaven, unassuming, non-dramatic sort of way. The big conflicts/concerns often include stuff closer to how they share TV (between sports and rom-com), or what they must order for dinner!
The camera is merely the fly on the wall. Blurring lines between actor and character. So much so that I once asked Mithila (a legit superstar now), if she had at any point actually dated Dhruv. She said she hadn’t, which I found really surprising — although even their close friends/family, she added, have asked her the same thing.
People have so easily fallen for these two. Why wouldn’t they fall for each other? Because we don’t know what they’re really like, otherwise. The beauty of Little Things is in the writing alone —it’s tough to keep it that simple/believable. Taking away nothing from the easygoing stars of the show, who make it seem simpler still.
Thankfully the fourth/final season isn’t an exception. I mean — well begun is half done, etc, is all good. But it’s the last scenes that must leave a lasting impression. Sticking to the well-established grammar of the show, what you still enjoy most are the extraneous things you observe. Since merely following the plot is not the point.
In keeping with that, I for one, switched off Little Things, and soon enough switched on a little known Mithun Da ear-worm/song from the late ’80s, ‘Julie Julie’ (from Jeete Hain Shaan Se). Why? Because it randomly plays in the party scene on this show, which overall too has some great acoustic-guitar compositions for a soothing background score.
What was my favourite scene from this season? I guess the bit where the couple gets the ‘munchies’ at midnight, and they drive off to explore the city, and its tea-stalls, and anda-pav type places, pre-dawn. Also, this makes you love the non-prying eyes of Bombay more. I’m guessing these two wouldn’t have been the same if they lived in most other parts of India.
What’s been my favourite moments from the entire show, though? I guess that confrontation scene from S2, E7, where, to quote the episode’s log line: “While attending a friend’s wedding, a moment of intimacy between Kavya and Dhruv devolves into a full-blown argument about where they stand.”
Think I remember watching this around the same time as Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story (2019), which left many shook. In a way that Hagai Levi’s Scenes from a Marriage (2021) sort of does too. Which in turn is based on Ingmar Bergman’s 1973 series of the same name — credited with having inspired a full school of cinema, based entirely on conversations. Of which Woody Allen (Annie Hall) has been principal, and Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise to Boyhood) remains the greatest student ever.
All the works listed above, of course, bear far more depth, and deal with much greater drama. Which I thought Little Things could eventually graduate to. Instead of deeming marriage as a business-class seat, and dating as travelling economy, so far as desis are concerned. Surely there is scope for deeper insight than that?
But then again, if that’s where the show went, it wouldn’t be about the little things, that we currently love it for, right? So this is just as well. Gonna miss these two, for sure.
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