For a show set 3 decades earlier, this feels especially ironic, but it needs to be said: in an earlier era, Taj Mahal 1989 might have felt like an intriguing failure. This, nevertheless, is the streaming period, when even the most respected binge-watcher always misses out on the vast bulk of new shows and films being released every week. From the audience’s perspective, therefore, the concept of a fascinating failure is a luxury at finest– critics must adapt appropriately. And by those requirements, Netflix India’s newest original, a series about 4 interlinked romances embeded in and around Lucknow University, comfortably misses the mark.
Two of those romances form a campus love triangle, in between Rashmi (Anshul Chauhan), Angad (Anud Singh Dhaka) and Dharam (Paras Priyadarshan). Rashmi and Dharam are in a relationship, while Angad has the (mostly considerate) hots for Rashmi. Sadly, all three of the young leads lack dialogue shipment skills. They look and seem like present-day Mumbai children. Together, they proved irritating enough for me to fast-forward their stories after episode 3;-LRB-