Film Review: Wedding Season

Starring: Pallavi Sharda, Suraj Sharma, Arianna Afar, Rizwan Manji, Veena Sood, Sean Kleier, Damian Thompson

Director: Tom Dey

Sometimes a film’s packaging seems quite obviously infused with a tried and tested romcom formula and this new Netflix Indian American romantic comedy seems to offer just that. But will this slick looking package have just the right amount of freshness to make it entertaining watch?

Asha (Sharda) is a fiercely independent career woman who has been working towards landing her big ethical investment break, with the support of an understanding and empathetic boss (Thompson). The hiccup is on the home front, with her meddlesome mother Suneeta (Sood) determined to find her daughter a nice desi husband to settle down with and have a family.

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Suneeta resorts to unashamedly propositioning prospective grooms online by posting less-than-accurate profiles of Asha despite her husband Vijay’s (Manji) mild protestations. Meanwhile, another family is keen to get their “MIT graduate” son Ravi (Sharma) similarly hitched to a nice Indian girl. The stars seem to be aligning for Asha and Ravi as they are forcibly united and go on to create a fake love story to keep their meddling families at bay. But will this pretend story have more truth in it that the pair are willing to acknowledge?

To answer the question at the start of this review, there is most definitely enough freshness in this cliched offering to make ‘Wedding Season’ a breeze to watch. It is light-hearted and easy on the narrative, never taking itself too seriously.

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The plot is as basic as the Indian names chosen for the main characters, but it is this simplicity at heart that makes this comedy drama hit just the right note throughout. And, at under two hours, this ride through a series of big fat Indian American weddings is most definitely a fun one to jump on to.