More sweet than kaaram

Curiously enough, as the story progresses, the sub-plots and the digressions turn out to be more engrossing than the main narrative.

Rashmi Vasudeva,

Jul 15 2023, 01:01 ist
updated: Jul 15 2023, 05:13 ist

Sweet Kaaram Coffee

Tamil (Prime Video)

Creator: Reshma Ghatala

Cast: Lakshmi, Madhoo Santhy Balachandran

Rating: 2.5/5

The biggest problem with 'Sweet Kaaram Coffee' is that it earnestly wants to be all sugar and spice but ends up being only nice. But if you forgive the makers for their desire to serve their audience more sweet than kaaram, the story is quite palatable.

So you have three women — a quirky mother-in-law (Lakshmi), her too-sweet daughter-in-law (Madhoo) and a worried-and-confused granddaughter (Santhy) having had it and deciding to take off on a road trip without informing the congenitally meh men in their household — one is the son and the so-called head of the family who dreams of hot puris for breakfast when his wife is talking to him about her existential woes, and the other is his son, who comes and goes without as much as a by-your-leave.

So far, so good. The three women, in the great established traditions of road trip stories, discover unknown facets to their personalities even as their minds bump over their insecurities, lost opportunities and unrealised dreams. Also, the mother-in-law has her own reasons for orchestrating this trip, reminding one of 'Gulmohar', another recent web series where the matriarch of the joint family, was, well, on her own secret journey.

Curiously enough, as the story progresses, the sub-plots and the digressions turn out to be more engrossing than the main narrative, which hems and haws and skirts around the major issues it wants to tackle — true emancipation, women confronting their innermost desires and, of course, the unforgivably casual but spirit-breaking patriarchy that many willingly accept and live with.

Lakshmi is superb as the droll old lady who does not miss her dead husband, nope, however desperately her son wants her to. Madhoo plays the doormat wife well while Santhy is the surprise package, who brings both vulnerability and strength to her character Niveditha. Oh, watch out for a surprise cameo and don't miss Julia and Roberts (yes, and).