Don’t listen to your friends. Mine told me to watch ‘Mismatched’ on Netflix. I did and now, the story is stuck in my head and I can’t get it out. The second season of the series hasn’t been announced yet. Though the producers are likely to do so in the near future, thoughts like “What if they don’t?” and “How long do I have to wait?” are slowly sucking the air out of my universe. The six-episode first season ended on a cliffhanger.

Released on Netflix in November 2020, Mismatched, written by Gazal Dhaliwal, is based on Shandhya Menon’s 2017 young adult novel “When Dimple Met Rishi”. In the rom-com, a girl and a boy are set up to meet (and eventually get married) by their families. The girl, Dimple Ahuja, doesn’t want to “settle down”. She is intent on building her career. However, when she meets Rishi Singh Shekhawat, at a three-month coding program she is enrolled in, the two become friends and eventually fall in love. 

The premise is simple. It’s every other rom-com you have ever watched: Boy meets girl, they fall in love, but then there’s a conflict to spice things up. But what makes Mismatched different is definitely the cast. I liked the actors and their interpretations of their characters. They are all believable and charming in their roles—even the annoying ones.

Dimple, played by one of India’s most popular YouTubers, Prajakta Koli (you might have heard of mostlysane) is fascinating and frustrating at the same time. You see yourself or your friends in her, and then you don’t. You love her, and then you hate her. She is every girl.

It's hard not to be smitten by Rishi—the dashing Nepali actor Rohit Saraf who has been a part of movies like ‘Dear Zindagi’, ‘Hichki’, and ‘The Sky Is Pink’. He is gentle, soft-spoken and kind. He is the friend you want, and the boyfriend you wish you had.

In the role of Professor Sid is actor, MTV VJ, and host of the popular reality show Roadies, Rannvijay Singh. He shines in his role of a sarcastic, no-nonsense teacher who believes in being strict to push his students to be the best versions of themselves. Even if that means he is misunderstood and feared.

And, remember Vidya Malvade who was the captain of the Indian hockey team in the Shahrukh Khan-starrer ‘Chak De India’? In Mismatched, she is a 41-year-old widow trying to start a new life and is back at school. As Zeenat Karim, she is adorable and you wish she had been given more screen space.

Mismatched touches on a few critical issues but doesn’t do any of them justice, choosing instead to focus on Dimple and Rishi and their love story. In doing so, it misses out on telling stories—of a closeted lesbian, and a guy suffering from alopecia, for instance—that could have started important conversations. There is a lot of potential for that, with actors and characters who could have pulled it off with ease. There are also a few glitches and oops moments in the storyline—wrinkles that neither the writer nor the editor thought of ironing out.

However, Mismatched is as entertaining as entertainment can get. With short episodes, you could watch the entire first season in a single afternoon. But be warned, you will spend the rest of the weekend wishing there were more.

Rating: 3/5

Genre: Rom-com

Actors: Prajakta Koli, Rohit Saraf, Rannvijay Singh, Vidya Malvade, Aditi Govitrikar

Director:  Akarsh Khurana & Nipun Dharmadhikari

Run time: Six episodes of 30 minutes each