Wedding Season

If this is on your watch list for this weekend consider this a SPOILER ALERT – You’ve been warned!

Netflix’s latest tribute to all things Indian is the rom-com Wedding Season. A true NRI flick this is a definite must-see for others like myself who will lap up anything remotely romantic. Featuring a cast that is not particularly well-known, at least to me, this romantic flick can be the perfect accompaniment to your weekend sleepover.

The Plot

Asha (Pallavi Sharda) a career-oriented Indian woman, feels pressurised to find a suitable life partner. The fact that Asha’s younger sister has found love adds to that pressure, and so in order to get her parents off her case, she agrees to go on a date with a person who her mother has picked for her online. Enter Ravi (Suraj Sharma), a so-called MIT grad whose dating profile has also been created by his parents. Asha and Ravi make a pact to act like they are dating throughout the wedding season, just to fool society. As every die-hard rom-com fan will know this is headed in only one direction – Asha and Ravi finally fall in love for real. In the course of the story, however, we learn that Ravi has not really graduated from MIT, but that he has made his money through other means.

Society is Not our Standard of Success

Throughout the movie, one aspect of Indian society rings true – we appease a monster called society. Although the entire movie is set in a western country, here too the fear of what the ‘aunties’ and ‘uncles’ might say is very real. Both Ravi and Asha try to appease society in their own way. Whether it is by satisfying their parents, or by putting on an act just to be left alone, the aspect of tailoring your life to the expectations of society is a definite reality. One of the very first commands in the Bible that God gives His people is “You shall have no other Gods before me.” This basically means that we live to worship God and God alone – the eternal one the creator of the universe. If this is true, then our lives need to be about more than fitting a template that society has to offer. When we embrace this view of life, then the labels that people place upon us don’t matter very much.

Kindness never gets dull

The character of Ravi in this flick is crafted very well. Initially, he helps his father out anonymously by supporting his local food business, and later he extends his arm out to Asha, anonymously again. Although this is not a Christian movie, it reflects Jesus’ teachings where He instructs His disciples to not let the right hand know what the left hand is doing.  In a world where kindness, especially without seeking praise, is hard-to-find these acts of uncredited kindness are definitely heart-warming.

Truth is always the way to go

The entire movie has ‘little white lies’ splattered all across. First, Asha fake-dates Ravi and so in order to maintain the façade, they tell an enormous amount of lies. Ravi also fudges the truth about what he does for a living, to Asha, to society, and even to his own family. This cascade of lies eventually catches up to both of them, and they break up for a period of time. Although in true Bollywood style they reunite once again, this may not always be the reality of life. The Bible tells us that “the truth will set you free.” Fear is an essential by-product of lying, so, in relationships and in life in general being truthful is one way to a fearless life. We may often find that the worst truth, is better than the most well-intentioned lie.