''The Married Woman'' is an Indian

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

-language,

romantic drama Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...

web series A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single i ...

featuring

Ridhi Dogra Ridhi Dogra (born 22 September 1984) is an Indian actress known for her portrayal of Nusrat in ''Asur'', Astha in ''The Married Woman'', Priya in '' Maryada: Lekin Kab Tak?'' and participation in ''Nach Baliye 6'' and '' Fear Factor: Khatron Ke ...

Monica Dogra Monica Dogra is an American musician and actress. She has acted in six feature films, as well as released five studio albums with the band Shaa’ir and func. She is a member on the judging panel of India's first English music talent show, ''The ...

Suhaas Ahuja Suhaas Ahuja is an Indian actor who has worked in Hindi films and television serials. He debuted in the movie ''Knock Knock, I'm looking to marry'' and is widely known for his role in the Aamir Khan starrer '' Talaash''. Suhaas Ahuja was rece ...

, and

Imaad Shah Imaaduddin Shah (also credited as Imaad Shah; born 20 September 1986) is an Indian actor and musician. He is the son of actors Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah. Early life Imaad was born to actors Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak on 20 ...

. Directed by Sahir Raza and produced by Juggernaut Productions, this web series is currently streaming on

ALTBalaji ALTBalaji is an Indian subscription based video on demand platform which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Balaji Telefilms Ltd. Launched on 16 April 2017, ALTBalaji is the group's foray into the digital entertainment sphere to create original O ...

and

ZEE5 ZEE5 is an Indian subscription video on-demand and over-the-top streaming service, run by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched in India on 14 February 2018 with content in 12 languages. The ZEE5 mobile app is available on Web, Androi ...

. The trailer was released at a launch event in Mumbai on 13 February 2021. It is based on Manju Kapur's book, ''A Married Woman''.

Synopsis

It is a story of two women, Astha and Peeplika, set in the backdrop of the 90s, where Astha is a dutiful housewife and a mother. Peeplika is an unconventional artist and has never been impressed by normal routines in her life. Astha sets out on a journey of self-discovery and meets Peeplika on the route. Astha sets herself free from the society pressures and boundaries when she finds an intense connection with Peeplika, something that she always longed for. All this happens amidst the riots after Babri Masjid demolition horrified the nation.

Cast

as Astha *

as Hemant *

as Peeplika *

as Aijaz *

Nadira Babbar Nadira Babbar (born 20 January 1948) is an Indian theatre actress, director and an actress in Hindi cinema, who is the recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2001. Nadira founded a Mumbai-based theatre group called Ekjute, a known name in H ...

as Hemant's Mother * Rahul Vohra as Hemant's Father *

Ayesha Raza Ayesha Raza Mishra (born 26 September 1977) is an Indian actress. Career Ayesha Raza Mishra began her career working in theatre, advertisements, and television shows. She went on to portray motherly roles in several films including Madaari, ...

as Babbo * Samridhi Dewan as Timsi * Nabeel Ahmed as Mudassar *

Divya Seth Divya Seth Shah is an Indian film and television actress, who started her career with TV serial '' Hum Log'', playing Majhli. She is the daughter of actress Sushma Seth and Dhruv Seth. She has done theatre with Barry John in Delhi, television s ...

as Peeplika's Mother * Sangeeta Balachandran as Garima Jain (Astha's Mom)

Episode List

Reception

Sweta Kaushal from ''

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Lyall ...

'' feels the show is a stereotypical act. It is all about politics and religion and the one which is heard mostly. She simply summarizes the review in the title: "Melodrama and Monologue kills the charm". Actors Riddhi and Monika Dogra have tried their best to act in spite of limited scope. Archika Khurana of ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

'' feels it is "A millieu of good performances challenging societal norms." The critics rating on TOI is 3/5 and average user rating goes to 3.5/5. The review ends with a solid line that says, "'The Married Woman' takes too long to make its point heard but it is the performances that hold your attention throughout". Shubham Kulkarni from

koimoi.com Koimoi is a Bollywood entertainment website providing Bollywood news, box-office reports and film reviews. In January 2021, its Alexa ranking in India was 2530. Origin On 23 November 2009, Contest2win.com and Komal Nahta's Faith Entertainment j ...

says, "Ridhi Dogra's Performance Is The Only Hook In A Show That Talks About Homosexuality In The Daily Soap Way". He concludes the review saying, "The Married Woman ends up being yet another soap opera made with some gen Z elements for the digital arena". Rating: 2.5 stars.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Married Woman, The Hindi-language web series Indian LGBT-related web series