Little Things (Season 3)
Cast: Dhruv Sehgal, Mithila Palkar
The metamorphosis of Little Things from season one to what it has become baffles me no end. From tiny 10-minute snippets into the breezy lives of a millennial couple in Mumbai, it has not only grown thrice in size in its runtime but also at heart. The late night ice-cream binges are now conversations on living in loneliness, and scenes which were once crowded by product placements are now filled with warm images that tell stories far better than words ever could. Little Things serves as a reminder to trust people and their talents when they need it, and they will transform into a gorgeous butterfly—one that will leave you sobbing in your bed during a 2am Netflix binge over a fictional character’s failing relationship.
Watch the trailer for Little Things season 3 here:
While the tiny first season showed you all the enviable qualities of Dhruv (Dhruv Sehgal) and Kavya’s (Mithila Palkar) sparkling new love, the second season had them tackle the relationship as it grew older and as they grew older and different from one another. Despite all their bickering, the building resentment and the envy one felt against the other, they still found ways back to each other at the end. And this time, Dhruv and Kavya face a villain so dreadful, it’s the stuff of millennial nightmares: loneliness. But unlike what me and my other millennial brothers and sisters would expect, we aren’t the only or even the most brutally scarred victims of this inescapable giant.
Dhruv, also a season runner who has written a few of the best episodes this year, etches a universal picture of solitude and how it eats at the lives of millennials and boomers alike. Episode 4 (Senior Citizens) and episode 5 (Vertical Housing) reach stunning new realms of empathy and relatability that easily take the crown for the best two episodes of the series. In the first, Kavya is the prodigal daughter returns to her parents in Nagpur for her dad’s retirement party. Through the struggle of teaching him the difference between men’s and women’s perfumes, installing the gadgets she sent them months ago, seeing their stash of medicines in Tupperware, and watching his heart shrink a little at the idea of a purposeless life that will now be away from his office desk, she realises that mum and dad grow older whether or not you are there to witness it in realtime.
On the other end, Dhruv goes to his own house in Delhi to help his mum leave their old neighbourhood for ‘vertical housing’ in Gurgaon. She laments how she would no longer get to chat with her milkman, vendors and street hawkers, her only companions in a life of lived without either her son or even her husband by her side. Dhruv can’t wait to leave and asks her as they lay down for an afternoon siesta, ‘Has time always moved this slow here?’ She tells him how the years rushed by when he was a child but now, living on her own day after day, it feels like time has simply stopped in its tracks. He knows what she means but does the loneliness affect him the same way it does her?
Having just spent six glorious months away from Kavya at a university in Bengaluru, Dhruv is feeling the immediate aftereffects of leaving it all behind. He claims to have found his ‘happy place’. Meanwhile, Kavya did spent her first few nights crying after him but she, too, learns to find happiness in other people. Like everyone does, slowly but eventually.
Over the years, the two had grown into a singular unit, eating, traveling, sleeping, laughing and living together. While that may be this life of love is something anyone would be envious of, it also has its own devils. One forgets how to live on their own, depend on themselves for their own emotional comfort and happiness. But seeing through this and realising that it is nothing to resent the other for, is what one needs to remember. Though roaring arguments, hurtful words, and sometimes with an understanding perspective, Kavya and Dhruv find a way out.
Sure, the arguments can still be a little too on the nose sometimes, the snaps too random and too abruptly ended. It will leave you frustrated to watch Dhruv lose his temper so quickly and so often at everyone around him. But maybe it just works in the show’s favour to feel the same frustration that those around him are feeling too.
While it is a great lesson in the beauty of love and also a cautionary tale to stay away and stay sane, the show’s major wins are still the smaller moments. Whether it was Kavya sandwiched between her mum and dad in bed on a sunny Sunday afternoon, getting her ear wax removed, or Dhruv, staring at his mother’s cracked heels, realising how she has grown so old, so alone. Dhruv and Kavya may have taken giant leaps towards a stronger and better relationship but the biggest impressions are still cast by the little things.
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