Ogling, eavesdropping, ridiculing cultural differences, assassinating character... these are a few of the many offensive ideas in MX Player’s Tandoori Idly, the sort of series you want to hide from your non-Tamil friends, lest they judge you. The series, promoted as an ‘interesting take on stereotypes’, adds little to the topic. The ‘stereotypes’ topics lend itself to multiple ideas, the creators here stick to the done-to-death Indru Poi Naalai Vaa template of having three guys fall for the same girl, albeit in a corporate setup.
The title tries to convey that it is a Delhi-girl-meets-Madurai-guy story, but the writers fail to create any engagement with the never-ending verbal spats between both parties. So, whenever a character goes, “Chennai oda gethu enna nu theriyuma?”, it only threatens to add bad rep to the city. The music offers no respite either, and serves only to muffle the rare efficient joke.
Ajai Prasath as Selvam looks tired and uninspired—almost as though he quietly realised the potential of this script—while Avanthika Mishra, much like her character Simran, seems out of place through the series.The office setup too is dull, and likely serves only to convince you of how good you have it at your existing office. A popular line went, “Startups are the new guitars, everybody has one these days.” I think it’s time we replaced ‘startups’ with ‘web series’.