Film: Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare (Netflix)
Cast: Kirat Assi, Hemma Gulhane, Anurag Mehra, Ariya Larker
Director: Lyttanya Shannon
Rating: 3/5
Runtime: 82 min

This Netflix documentary based on a hit podcast of the same name, is largely a first-person account by Kirat of her experience. Sweet Bobby was a popular Tortoise podcast released in 2021 and attracted thousands of listeners.  In this documentary account Kirat narrates her own story. She talks of how she got involved with ‘Bobby’ through social media ( Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, phone calls and Skype) detailing how, over the years, she grew closer to not only Bobby ( who was recovering from a shooting and a stroke in New York) but also his friends and family. Catfishing implies being victimised by getting lured into a relationship by someone who is using another person’s identity on social platform.

Director Lyttanya Shannon also includes interviews with Kirat’s relatives and friends in order to understand context about the pressures involved in making her ignore the obvious red flags evident in Bobby’s claims. Kirat was single and in her mid-30s, desperate to start a family, with mounting pressure from her close ones to get hitched, as time was running out so-to-speak.