Decoupled
カップル崩壊
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A misanthropic novelist and his wife plan an amicable divorce in Gurgaon and keep failing to be amicable.
Arya Iyer, a writer of popular fiction, is India's second-bestselling novelist, behind Chetan Bhagat, who plays himself. Arya has contempt for almost everyone he meets and no ability to keep it to himself. His wife, Shruti, has left a corporate job to found a start-up and is courting a Korean investor, Mr Lee. In a high-end housing complex in Gurgaon they have agreed to divorce, but they go on living under one roof, in separate bedrooms, for the sake of their twelve-year-old daughter, Rohini.
Over eight half-hour episodes the separation keeps colliding with Arya's mouth. He lands on a no-fly list after insulting a paramilitary officer at an airport, and the video goes viral; he pitches a series to Netflix; he rearranges bookshop shelves so that his novel outranks Bhagat's; he humiliates their marriage counsellor at a party. Shruti, mortified at every turn, is pursued by Dr Basu, an economist who dislikes Arya, and flirts with Mr Lee. They agree that each may see other people. Arya begins a fling with Masha, whom he met while mocking a flight attendant, and both of them feel an odd guilt at not being able to tell the other. Shruti's Punjabi parents arrive unannounced; the couple argue over who should tell Rohini, and Arya tells her on the way home from a party.
Arya proposes a party to announce the divorce. In the last episode family and friends gather at a resort in Goa, where the couple say 'I do' to their separation and toss their wedding rings across a fire. Their driver remembers how they once talked all the way home in the back seat, then less, then not at all. Arya finds Masha at the resort, apologises and spends the night with her. Mr Lee, whom Shruti had hoped to see there, appears only on a video call, with the offer of a job in London, which she decides to accept. Rohini, upset, is helped by one of Arya's friends to see her parents as people rather than giants. The marriage is over in every way but on paper, and the two of them are still, in their fashion, partners. Then Chetan Bhagat lets slip what Arya has not been told: Shruti is taking the London job and moving there with Rohini. The series ends on Arya, stunned, turning to her.
Starring
R. Madhavanas Arya Iyer
A bestselling pulp novelist who says aloud what he thinks of everyone, working out a divorce while living with his wife.
Arya Iyer’s story
Arya cannot bear being India's second-bestselling novelist: he rearranges bookshop shelves so that his books sit above Chetan Bhagat's. An insult to a paramilitary officer at an airport puts him on a no-fly list, and the video goes viral, shared first by Bhagat. Free to see other people, he pursues Masha, who throws him out of her hotel room when he offers her a necklace in exchange for sex. It is Arya who tells Rohini about the divorce, and Arya who proposes a party to announce it. In Goa he says 'I do' to the separation, throws his ring across the fire, apologises to Masha and spends the night with her. Back home, Bhagat lets slip on a video call that Shruti is taking a job in London, and Rohini with her. Arya turns to her, stunned.
Surveen Chawlaas Shruti
Arya's wife, a poised start-up founder chasing a Korean investor, tired of being embarrassed by her husband.
Shruti’s story
Shruti and Arya have agreed to divorce but share a house for Rohini's sake; it is she who changes her status online. When he will not take down a video, she gets her own back at a literature festival, where he is beaten and chased off the stage. Free to see others, she gets on well with Mr Lee, the Korean investor she has been courting, but turns him down. At a neighbourhood party she tells Arya off in front of everyone for ruining their evenings. In Goa she walks into Lee's suite expecting him and finds him on a video call, offering her a job leading a new fund in London. She decides to take it, and Rohini with her, and does not tell Arya. The series ends as he hears it from Chetan Bhagat.
Arista Mehtaas Rohini
Their twelve-year-old daughter, close to her irreverent father, for whose sake her parents keep sharing a house.
Mir Afsar Alias Dr Basu
An economist full of liberal talk, who pursues Shruti and cannot stand Arya.
Sonia Ratheeas Masha
A woman Arya meets while being rude to a flight attendant, and with whom he begins a fling.
Why it matters
Decoupled is a comedy about the end of a marriage in which nothing dramatic happened: no affair started it and no violence ended it, only a long drift the couple's driver can measure by the silences in the back seat. Its interest lies in a divorce designed rather than suffered, negotiated inside a shared house for a child's sake and finally celebrated with a party. Around it, Manu Joseph's writing aims at the manners of India's English-speaking rich through a hero whose rudeness is the joke. Critics were divided; several found its jokes about women's bodies, transgender people and domestic workers crass rather than satirical, while the two leads were widely praised. The question it leaves is gentler than its humour: whether two people can stop being married without stopping being on each other's side.