Musafir Cafe Web Series Review: The beauty of Musafir Cafe lies in its simplicity and monotonous rhythm. There’s nothing unpredictable, dramatic or high-stakes about this show. Maybe that’s why it feels like a gush of fresh breeze. The comfort of familiarity – which almost feels like a frayed and faded but beloved blanket – becomes this narrative’s strongest link.
A series themed on romance isn’t really a safe streaming bet. There’s no easy binge-watch hook here. Yearning, chemistry, emotional intimacy and small moments don’t amount to cliff-hangers. And that’s why creator Sharanya Rajgopal and director Ruchir Arun deserve brownie points. Because in times like this, where gore and gunpowder are ruling the roost, love on streaming feels like a bold step.But don’t mistake Musafir Cafe for a saccharine-coated story about rainbows and star dust that gives butterflies in your belly. This one’s far from that. It explores the messy and unpleasant nuances and complexities of a relationship. It asks you, what happens when you meet the right person at the wrong time. It also questions if true love is always the right kind of love.Based on Divya Prakash Dubey’s eponymous novel, Musafir Cafe opens with Chander and Preeti running a cafe nestled somewhere in the mountains. While they’re very much in love, there’s more than what meets the eye. Preeti has accepted that a big part of her partner’s heart, who loves her intensely and dotes on her, will always belong to his ex-lover.
The action then moves eight years back to Bhopal. Chander, a young man in his twenties, has recently moved to the city to escape his parents, who are obsessed with getting him married. Even from miles away, they fix up meetings for him with prospective brides. During one such date, he meets Sudha. For him, she’s a girl like no one else.
He quickly learns that she has no intention of getting married, ever. And yet, that one conversation draws them close. Eventually, Sudha moves in with him, and while they promise each other to never cross the line and get emotionally attached and physically intimate, they do as luck would have it. He accepts Sudha with all her quirks. He even lets go of his dreams and ambitions to move with her to Mumbai.And that’s when all hell breaks loose. Chander’s love and commitment towards her scare Sudha. She isn’t afraid of love but what it might cost. She has built her life around ambition, independence and self-determination. So, when he starts centring his entire life around her, it doesn’t feel romantic but almost claustrophobic to her. So, after a heated emotional exchange, she leaves him.
But eight years later, Sudha suddenly re-enters his life. What he does next after years of heartbreak, failed attempts at reconciliation with her and a lingering lack of closure (with Preeti still very much a part of his life) forms the rest of the story. Musafir Cafe doesn’t make any lofty promises. It makes no grand statements about love, nor does it attempt to reinvent the romance genre.
Instead, it finds beauty in the everyday complexities of relationships, presenting them with honesty, warmth and simplicity. Much like life itself, the story is imperfect and sometimes messy for the sake of it. It occasionally moves at a languid pace. There are moments that will tug at your heartstrings, and then there are some you may struggle to wrap your head around.
