Do You Wanna Partner Review: Tamannaah Bhatia, Diana Penty's Series Is A Mix Of Dreams And Disappointments

Title: Do You Wanna Partner

Directors: Archit Kumar and Collin D’Souza

Cast: Tamannaah Bhatia, Diana Penty, Jaaved Jaaferi, Nakuul Mehta, ShwetaTiwari, Neeraj Kabi

Where: Prime Video

Rating: 3 Stars

Ah, the intoxicating world of start-ups, a bubbling concoction of ambition, desperation, and the occasional pinch of jugaad. This eight-episode series tries to capture this spirit, following Shikha (Tamannaah Bhatia) and Anahita (Diana Penty), two spirited young women on a mission to shake up India’s nascent craft beer industry. They challenge conventions, sidestep regulations, and face quirky obstacles. The series offers an offbeat yet heartwarming portrait of female ambition and agency. It captures the highs, lows, and messy reality of building something from scratch. Sadly, the storytelling rarely matches that spirit, sticking to predictable tropes and frothy drama.

Set against urban India’s hustling backdrop, the plot is as formulaic as a brewing manual. Shikha’s quest to fulfil her late father’s failed dream of becoming a brewmaster sets the story in motion, while Anahita, aka “Mak,” a finance wizard, signs on with almost bewildering ease. The narrative starts off weak, languishing in froth until the fourth episode. It finds its footing thereafter, but predictability lingers like a bad hangover. Just when you hope for a twist, the series serves up another trope-laden “aha!” moment, breaking the narrative’s momentum.

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Actors' performance

Tamannaah Bhatia and Diana Penty carry the show with earnest energy, their chemistry swinging between genuine camaraderie and perfunctory banter. Tamannaah’s Shikha is an emotionally driven marketing expert, brimming with ambition, while Diana’s Anahita, the finance wizard, offers pragmatic calm mixed with clueless optimism. The brain-and-heart duo should spark fireworks, but the script fails to give them sharp conflicts or depth. More often, they come across as bumbling dreamers who stumble into eureka moments, making them weak and unconvincing protagonists.

Supporting characters occasionally steal the spotlight, especially Anahita’s brother Firoo with his peculiar one-liners. Nakuul Mehta’s Brewmaster Bobby, an eccentric single dad, feels peripheral at first and seems padded in later episodes, as an afterthought. Jaaved Jaaferi’s Dylan, the amnesiac brand ambassador, brings quirky charm, while Shweta Tiwari’s ruthless gangster Laila shows genuine conviction. Both are held back by weak writing. Neeraj Kabi’s flamboyant antagonist Vikram Walia teeters between menace and melodrama. Performances are solid but rarely transcend clichés.

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Music

The soundtrack is a curious brew of Bhangra beats and festival anthems like Hum Dum, Chediyan, We Coming, Ishqa, and Tanhayi Mein. Some songs are performed live during the music festival within the narrative, while others serve as part of the background score. The result? A pleasant but uneven soundscape that tries to amplify the mood but more often feels shoehorned. Visually, the series is polished, with Dharmatic Entertainment’s glossy production design providing a safe but unadventurous canvas. Urban India looks hip and aspirational, though hardly evocative of the real struggle beneath the start-up glitz.

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FPJ verdict

This series offers a light, frothy ride for those seeking feel-good entrepreneurial drama. It delivers “josh, jazbaat, and junoon” in measured doses but lacks the daring to subvert its own formula. While you chuckle along and young dreamers may nod in recognition, seasoned viewers will find it predictable and comfortably safe. Ultimately, it’s a decent weekend binge but forgettable once the credits roll.