MY3 Web Series, On Disney+ Hotstar, Is A Passable Sci-Fi RomCom With Little Fun

Director: M Rajesh

Cast: Hansika Motwani, Mugen Rao, Shanthnu, Janani

Streaming on: Disney+ Hotstar

When you plan to watch a M Rajesh film, you know you're signing up for some silliness. I mean it in a good way because that’s his strong suit. And as a result, we get characters who are unabashedly flawed and engage in awkward situations. When done right, you get a relatable story with side-splitting sequences like the ones we enjoyed in Siva Manasula Sakthi (2009). However, whenever he overplays with the silliness, the story becomes too absurd to care for. MY3 has a mix of both, which is probably why even when some parts brim with promise, the artificiality in several sub-plots ruins the fun.

A Fun Premise

An official remake of the K-drama I Am Not A Robot (2017, available on Netflix), MY3 is about a lonely, rich businessman, Adithya Chandrasekhar (Mugen Rao), who lives in an estate in Ooty that requires even his friends to get checkpost clearance to meet him. He chooses to be alone because he suffers from human allergy; whenever he comes in contact with a human being, itchy rashes appear all over his body and he faints. Rajesh takes his time to establish Ad ithya’s world and we understand that while he suffers from a dermatology-related condition, it stems from his psychological issue. Naturally, when scientist Eliyas' (Shantanu) team introduces to him the humanoid, MY3 (Hansika Motwani), Adithya is overjoyed. But when everything falls apart, the scientists rope in Mythreyi (also, Hansika), Eliyas’s ex-girlfriend, to act as the robot.

The series delves deep into Adithya’s psyche and how he slowly warms up to the Mythreyi, believing her to be a robot, so that he finally feels safe and comfortable. We also have Eliyas, a workaholic, who is still in love with Mythreyi and Keerthana (Janani), one of the scientists, who falls in love with Eliyas. Rajesh uses Adithya’s naivete and Eliyas and Keerthana’s jealousy to lend comic relief to the plot. Whenever the series focuses on these internal conflicts, it takes the audience on a fun ride. But when it turns its lens towards external obstacles, like the crazy dad-son antagonists and a woman who has a crush on Adithya, it begins to test your patience. Rajesh probably included the roles because it was there in the original. However, he uses them only for additional comedy sequences which fall into the “U is not you. YOU is only you” category, or are even more doltish.

Misogyny, A Recurring Issue

Misogyny has been an attribute of Rajesh’s characters (think of Saravanan in OKOK) and Eliyas is no exception. Whenever Mythreyi messes up while acting as a robot, Eliyas keeps saying “Indha ponnungaluku IQ kammi, indha ponnungale ipadi thaan, etc. (women have less IQ, women are always like this)” Even though Keerthana questions him at times, she is otherwise made to always fawn over his actions. Likewise, in one of the scenes, Eliyas sadly confesses, “Adithya treats Mythreyi with so much respect and care even when he thinks she is a robot, I haven’t given her that respect when she was my girlfriend.” But such dialogues are placed randomly, with no action backing his changed attitude.

Superficial Writing Spoils The Fun

The group of scientists, which also includes Sam (Shakthi) and Ram (Abhishek), feel like one-note characters, which makes the comedy sequences appear forced. While Mugen delivers what is expected of him in his debut series, Hansika doesn’t bring her charm to Mythreyi, making it hard for us to connect with the already superficially written character. And the other actors have little to contribute. With almost four flashbacks, medical explanations that barely make sense, many greenscreen issues and quick plot shifts, MY3 feels stretched and offers very little in nine episodes.

MY3 is not a scene-to-scene remake of I Am Not A Robot. The original is almost four times longer than MY3 and also focuses on sub-plots like how Mythreyi (Jo Ji-ah in the original) struggles to part ways with Eliyas and the amount of time they spend to help Mythreyi behave like a robot. It’s funny that in the whole of MY3, all you see the scientists do is sit and monitor Mythreyi’s activities. Apart from the fact that Mythreyi is initially depicted as a smart robotic scientist but then is reduced to just acting as a robot, even Keerthana and other women characters like the one who has a crush on Adithya, are treated so badly, and have no agency. The makers of MY3 released a promo video a few days before its release in which we see Rajesh asking for an extra month to finish scripting but is compelled to narrate immediately. Maybe that’s where the issues started.