Little Things season one had premiered on Dice Media’s YouTube Channel in 2016 and after garnering over 15 million views within days, Netflix picked it up from season two. From thereon, Little Things catapulted to global recognition overnight. The series tells the story of Dhruv (Dhruv Sehgal) and Kavya (Mithila Palkar) who navigate through their tumultuous twenties cohabitating in Mumbai. Dhruv and Kavya, whom we first met in their cutesy twenties, culminate into two adults who must figure out what they want not only from each other but also from life, as marriage, money and society loom in the background.
We join Dhruv and Kavya as they chase their professional ambitions while balancing their time together and apart. While seasons one and two explored their life as a lazy “couch couple”, season three forced them to get up and explore life outside their relationship to be happy individuals. In season four they’re adults with a better grasp on life and yet somewhat lost, because in life there are no happy endings and no point where all fog clears away.
Little Therapy via Netflix
Little Things grew close to our heart not only because of the heart-melting intimacy between the protagonists, but also how easy-going its execution is. This ‘little’ show sensitively presented the most authentic portrayal of the everyday ‘little things’ that makes love and companionship so beautiful. Small (but not insignificant) issues are addressed and then resolved with such simplicity that it gives you clarity into your own personal relationships.
As movie goers, we expect a strong conflict and then some big romantic gesture with happy songs in foreign background. Little Things breaks every rule from that book. As we watch Dhruv and Kavya arguing over making time for friends and after-work parties to appeasing each other with biryani and pithla bhakri, their day-to-day struggles no longer feel petty rather relatable.
Their performances are so natural that you’d forget its an Indian show and that proves how Dhruv (writer of the series until season three) has cracked the code on showing love more realistically than we have ever seen from Indian productions before. Every Indian story is always about how the boy gets the girl, but Little Things does not boast larger-than-life love, fighting, cheating or sex.
Dhruv and Kavya feel real because the beauty of real love stories lies in living through the mundane and muted everydays.
Magic is not so much in Simran running to catch Raj’s train but in Raj and Simran coming home to each other every day for years.
Why people resonated with the show is because of the unproblematic characters that felt closer to themselves. Both Kavya and Dhruv occasionally had acts of selfishness but it was called out and there was growth from both sides. They talk, they apologize, they compromise and move forward- not once are either partners portrayed as a “bi**h” especially Kavya for prioritizing her career. Mithila portrayed her character to the point of perfection as middle-class Kavya from Nagpur who set out to Mumbai to fulfil her ambitions, almost like one of our friends. Dhruv Sehgal is flawless in his body language of an intellectual academic trying his best to make it to his favorite mutton-biryani place.
How the Final Season Fares
The fourth and final season of the series has all its major characters and actors returning one last time. Special shoutout to the actors playing Dhruv and Kavya’s parents, Loveleen Mishra-Pawan Chopra as Dhruv’s parents and Navani Parihar-Rishi Deshpande as Kavya’s who were the cutest and made us want to sit and gossip with them. Perhaps absorb some bits of wisdom.
Season four isn’t the Momo and Kavu we’re familiar with, rather the carefree couple has metamorphosed into two responsible individuals trying to juggle their love life amidst the chaos of a long-distance relationship. The previous season had Kavya Dhruv opt for long-distance relationship as Dhruv explored Bangalore. In Mumbai, Kavya struggled with loneliness at home. Unexpectedly Kavya and Dhruv further push their relationship, in season three closing, with the former moving back to Nagpur to stay with her parents and the latter taking a job in Finland.
This season sees Dhruv-Kavya reuniting after 14 months apart for a short holiday in Kerala before moving back to Mumbai, together. Initially we observe them to be rather off-beat; the awkwardness written deliberately to highlight the subtle cracks even the most perfect relationship face in a long-distance. Their Mumbai life zooms in on the seemingly simple intimate gestures that couples in long term relationships often take for granted — a foot massage, taking walks together, accompanying each other to medical appointments, helping your partner’s parents etc.
Little Things stays in character by not attempting a grand exit. The show backpedals to the same moments it had grown itself from: Dhruv and Kavya’s love for food, their late-night strolls, driving to nowhere and the magic all of it swept us in.
The writers throw in their biggest masterstroke as “Ek Din Aap Yun Humko Mi Jayenge” plays in the background. It leaves enough to the imagination while answering all pertinent questions.
Criticism
With the risk of sounding biased, I want to say I like everything about Little Things. I watched all four seasons with a smile plastered to my face to the point where my jaws began to hurt. I have cried when they reunited. And when the big reveal happened.
If I HAD to nitpick, I would point out despite Director Ruchir Arun’s multiple drone and jib beauty shots of Kerala, and the slow-mo montage of the couple feeling visually appealing, they seemed out of character for the show. Another issue that slightly pricked me was the stubborn refusal to showing any physical intimacy. Perhaps the show could have delved into their awkwardness with it after the long-distance to maintain the show’s commitment to realism.
Another hilarious loop was if they frequently tossed around jobs, how are they not in debt? Who is paying for their luxurious lifestyle in Mumbai?
Jokes apart, yes, the plot of the show is inconsistent with how majority of the Indian society is still very conservative.
It had two upper middle class “liberal” people, and their respective parents, with westernized views about gender, travelling etc. glide through their relationship; but it seems to cater towards how most young adults treat our relationships as escapes, and protect the bubble of our love from the real world chaos.
So I appreciate the makers for their attempt to produce something wholesome, escapist and relatable. Because every piece of art could be prosecuted for not being “preachy” enough, or criticized for its tokenism or its attempt to normalize something seemingly blasphemous. But that’s not the objective of every art, is it? It is in making viewer’s heart beat for the characters, and ours were in sync with Momo and Kavu.
Conclusion
If one is sick of all the war, political, crime or sci-fi dystopian content steaming currently, this is a rare slice-of-life gem, all about self-discovery, buried amongst the heavier stuff, and is the closest portrayal of healthy relationships anyone in their 20s will experience in real life.
When Dhruv says, “life just seems like going around in circles. You solve a problem and feel you’re moving forward, only to find some new obstacle.” and Kavya smilingly replies, “then what really matters is who you are going around in circles with.” – this is how Little Things makes you feel both the mundane and the grand aspects of modern-day love. The cinematic experience feels like being a burrito wrapped under the blankets on a cold winter morning and your partner joins you with a hot cup of chamomile tea he made for you.
