Sweet Kaaram Coffee Review: Madhoo Shines In Wholesome, But Stretched, Road Story Of Women Reclaiming Their Lives
Don't sleep on the show's music!
3 / 5
The timing of Sweet Kaaram Coffee dropping on Prime Video felt like some cosmic reassurance to me. It was the week after I had lost my Nani (grandmother), and I couldn’t bear to watch anything emotional, lest it bring up feelings. Maybe a Mission Impossible marathon instead? And yet, something drew me towards the series, in which three women from three different generations of a family—played by Lakshmi, Madhoo, and Santhy—take an escapist road trip, leaving the men of the family behind, to figure out who they are and what they want. The series, created by Reshama Ghatala and directed by Bejoy Nambiar, Krishna Marimuthu, and Swathi Raghuraaman, though not without faults, turned out to be soothing and wholesome.
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In Sweet Kaaram Coffee, we meet Sundari, Kaveri, and Nivi, the women of the Rajaratnam household. Widowed a year ago and confined to the house in mourning, Sundari is well cared for by her son and daughter-in-law, grandson and granddaughter, yet she wants out of the house to pursue a secret agenda. She gets the perfect chance to put her plan in motion when her daughter-in-law, Kaveri, frustrated with her husband for losing interest and neglecting her, throws an off-handed comment during dinner about just the ladies taking a trip.
Surprisingly, Nivi, Sundari’s granddaughter, also thinks it’s a great idea. Unbeknownst to her family, Nivi has had an ugly fight with her boyfriend, who undermines her cricketing career and wants her to put it on the back burner because his mother wouldn’t like a daughter-in-law that plays. And of course, he believes she’s good but could never be as successful as he would in men’s cricket. When Rajaratnam and his son Bala mockingly dismiss their trip plan, the ladies make an elaborate plan to sneak away in the dead of night for a road trip to Goa, making a pact to stick by each other and have the time of their lives.
Like its name, Sweet Kaaram Coffee is sweet, funny, and a wholesome, soothing watch. The three women, all at different points in their lives, and the way the show finds an overlap in their emotional dilemmas is beautiful. A daughter who doesn’t want to be like her mother and choose between two things she desperately wants; a wife who chooses to take control of her happiness in her marriage instead of resigning to her faith; a woman in the twilight of her life, searching for the happiness that she didn’t have the courage to claim when she was young.
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The cast is my favourite thing about this show. Lakshmi is electric as Sundari, and she brings the comic element in the story, her arc eventually becoming the most emotional as well. Santhy as Nivi brings out the dilemma of a modern woman torn between love and career, who matures over the course of the journey, quite well. Her Nivi has multiple crises of faith that are always relatable, as she yearns for the love that she had with her boyfriend but can’t shake the feeling that the cricket field is where she belongs. She makes you question some of your own biases; would you regret choosing a person over your passion?
The arc of my favourite character in the series, Kaveri, played by a scene-stealing Madhoo, answers this question sans judgement. Madhoo stole my breath with her screen presence and her graceful portrayal of Kaveri. Her character is reminiscent of Sridevi’s Shashi from English Vinglish, though of course, with more time at her disposal to show just how she reclaims her life without losing her essence. As she tells Nivi, that as her daughter, she is Kaveri 2.0, a better version of her mother, but that doesn’t mean her mother made the wrong choice. It was just a different one.
The show doesn’t forget its men, and neither will I. Kavin Jay Babu as Rajaratnam is hilarious and likeable, even when he has forgotten how to express love to his beautiful wife.
Sweet Kaaram Coffee is not without the genre’s clichés. So everything from a music festival to a village home, and a stranger’s wedding become pitstops on these women’s journeys. The men back home also go through the motions of a life without a woman running the household; how it begins with subtle emotional blackmail and ends with them accepting their fate, and simply missing the ladies. On the other hand, the show throws in subtle tributes to a lot of tropes and films that mildly amused me. One of the people they encounter is a Kabir Singh lookalike (Vamsi Krishna as Vikram), with a bike too, who actually turns out to be an ally. There’s even a nod to Julia Roberts since the series does somewhat have an Eat Pray Love vibe.
And the biggest surprise of all is a crossover from another Prime Video series that you would never have expected. It’s not some major story-altering twist, merely a wholesome bonding moment between two characters. To some, it might just seem like prolonging an already slow story. But I enjoyed it completely. A lovely surprise!
Though, not a dealbreaker, Sweet Kaaram Coffee is the weakest when it loses momentum. It takes too long to brew and arrive at its destination. At first, the visual language of the show, the camera’s leisurely movements, the focus on these characters and their beauty and emotions, and the numerous flashbacks that tell more about their lives, all of it is enjoyable. The series also boasts some great music (Govind Vasantha), in multiple languages including Hindi and English, that elevates these moments. But in its second half, they start wearing you down as the scenes and flashbacks start getting redundant and looking like fillers to prolong the episode lengths.
While I did enjoy the series, and its soothing, dreamy quality, a tighter Sweet Kaaram Coffee could’ve easily been a movie. Or at least two episodes shorter.
Also Read: What To Watch This Week Of July 3 To July 9: Tarla, Blind, Neeyat, Sweet Kaaram Coffee, And More
Verdict
Looks like Jee Le Zara might take a while to start its journey. In the meantime, I wouldn’t say no to stories like this one!
Sweet Kaaram Coffee is a sweet, wholesome, series about female friendships and women reclaiming their lives. It looks beautiful, with good performances from its trio of Lakshmi, Madhoo, and Santhy, and some great music to add to your playlist. The show ends on a cliffhanger, and I actually wouldn’t mind a second season to see how these women adapt when the fallout from their escapist road trip lands in their life back home. The makers have just got to be a little judicious with the time, lest their well-brewed coffee gets cold.
Sweet Kaaram Coffee is currently streaming on Prime Video.
First Published: July 09, 2023 3:13 PM5 Reasons Women Should Date Multiple Guys. Mainly Because, Don’t Put All Your Eggs In One Basket
