‘Decoupled’ : The comedy of separation

‘My character sometimes says the most obnoxious lines,’ reveals R Madhavan, as he and co-star Surveen Chawla present the mid-December dramedy, Decoupled

Both R Madhavan and Surveen Chawla are not new to streaming. Madhavan, 51, made his debut with Breathe in 2018 when streaming was considered, at best, peripheral. Chawla, 37, struck gold with the second season of Sacred Games in 2019. Having begun their respective journeys on television — Zee TV’s Banegi Apni Baat and Ghar Jamai for Madhavan or Ekta Kapoor’s Kahin To Hoga for Chawla — their careers touched films, both Hindi and Tamil, before it landed on streaming, first separately, and now together, with their Netflix show Decoupled.

Created and written by author Manu Joseph (Serious Men), directed by Hardik Mehta (Kamyaab, Roohi), Decoupled uses the frame of comedy to look at a couple in Gurgaon navigating divorce. “I haven’t played a character like this before,” says Madhavan, who plays a writer in the show. He is known for having a good hold on screenplays and contributing to scripts, be it with his earlier hits Minnale (2001), 3 Idiots (2009), or the more recent Irudhi Suttru (2016).

In an interview with the two actors for The Hindu Weekend, edited for length and clarity, they speak of how the pandemic and streaming has shaped their craft, and Decoupled.