It’s easy to glamorize the age-old tradition of arranged marriages — that’s the cement that’s holding Hindu families and the culture together. That’s because we only get to hear the sanitized, rose-tinted interpretation of the marriage stories and overlook the misogyny, order, and partisanship since it has been regularized in our minds. Bollywood flicks like “ Hum Aapke Hain Koun ”, “ Vivah, ” “ Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, ” and “ Namastey London ” are ignominious for doing this. Meanwhile, shows like “ The Big Day ” and “ Indian Matchmaking ” are shamefaced of repackaging conservatism as a euphemism at a time when we should be telling the Indian youth to break this cycle of patriarchy. Roshan Sethi’s “ 7 Days ”, which was released before this time, further the sickening custom of arranged marriages. And Netflix’s “ Wedding Season ” comes veritably close to doing the same. I know this all sounds negative, but hear me out.
Directed by Tom Dey and written by Shiwani Srivastava, “ marriage Season ” follows Asha( Pallavi Sharda), who works in micro-finance. Her father is Vijay( Rizwan Manji). Her family is Priya( Arianna Afsar), who's about to get wedded to Nick( Sean Kleier). And her mama is Suneeta( Veena Sood), who's so hopeless to get Asha to marry someone that she lies about her personality on a nuptial website. That’s where Ravi( Suraj Sharma) comes in. His father is Dinesh( Manoj Sood), and his mama is Veena( Sonia Dhillon Tully), and the two of them run an eatery. Ravi is an MIT graduate, an aspiring DJ, and helps out his parents with the eatery on the side as well. Asha and Ravi go on an arranged date. They realize they aren’t interested in each other. But, to avoid getting taunted by nosy aunties and their parents, they decide to fake their relationship.
still, ” “ The Offer, ” “ Jab We Met ”), If you take all the forenamed Bollywood flicks and all the flicks where a couple pretends to be in a relationship and also falls in love( “ Enough Woman. ” But it’s the aspiration to be commodity further than that that counts. Although everything between Asha and Ravi is exorbitantly Hindu in nature, the multiple marriages that they go to show the intersectionality that has percolated into Indian culture abroad. There’s indeed some minor commentary on order. But the stylish thing about the film is the focus on Asha and how she always prioritizes her work and her dreams of expanding her midair professionally. It shows us that a person can aspire to love and be loved, but not at the cost of what they truly want to be. However, they can join the lift, If your so-called better half is willing to support you. However, also they can take the trace, If not.
A major bright spot in “ Wedding Season ” is the cast. Pallavi Sharda and Suraj Sharma click so snappily that you have to keep in mind that the union of their characters is the result of an accumulative tradition. As the movie progresses and delves into Asha and Ravi’s characteristics, both Pallavi and Suraj get to show their uproarious and romantic chops. laurels to Shiwani for loading them up with some of the facetious discourses in a rom-com. But it’s seriously insane how well Pallavi and Suraj walk the line between hot and funny, thereby making you wish you were them or at least with them. Arianna Afsar, Sean Kleier, Veena Sood, Rizwan Manji, Damian Thompson, Ronica Sajnani, Manoj Sood, Sonia Dhillon Tully, Gauri Prasad, and Julius Cho are amazing in their supporting places. Especially the parents, as they get to show how tyrannous Indians can be in their sweats to express the love they've for their children.
With all that said, let’s come to the strike of the film, which is so impeccably instanced by Nick, i.e., the glorification of arranged marriages in Hindu communities. It’s illegal to anticipate Tom Dey and Shiwani Srivastava to talk about a community( for illustration, the Jewish- Hindu couple or the Hindu- Muslim couple) that they don’t belong to for the sake of representation. So, it's accessible why they settled on a Hindu affair. On top of that, big ups to them as they check the part of parents and cousins, how they assume that a woman needs a hubby for “ support, ” and how they demean anyone who doesn’t have a salaried job. They indeed try to bring up the content of estate. still, also they paint over it with shimmer and “ genda phool ” just so that they can say that these customs are problematic, but they work out in the end, and everyone gets their veritably own song-and-cotillion figures.
In conclusion,non-Indians and the NRI followership have always lapped up flicks in and around Indian settings,e.g., “ Monsoon Wedding, ” “ The Namesake, ” “ Bend It Like Beckham, ” “ The Darjeeling Limited, ” “ Slumdog Millionaire, ” and “ Bride & Prejudice. ” Because it either seems new and fantastic to them or because it validates the sugar-carpeted image of Indian culture that exists in their imaginations. “ marriage Season ” falls right into that order. But, those who have watched romcoms like this and are apprehensive of the cons and cons of conservatism will presumably have a tough time digesting everything about it. Thankfully, there’s a progressive through-line about supporting your daughters and icing that nothing comes in the way of their success. It does shine a light on some of the disquieting rudiments in the Hindu culture. And it has two veritably seductive leads in the form of Pallavi Sharda and Suraj Sharma. So, with all that in mind, I'll recommend “ Wedding Season ” as it deserves a watch.