Easy-peasy-ek-dum-breezy, that’s what A Viral Wedding, can be summed up as in a few words. ‘Made in lockdown’ - as the tagline of the micro-series says, this is a first of its kind online show that’s been written, acted, produced and post-produced in isolation. Presented by filmmakers Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK’s D2R Indie, A Viral Wedding is actor Shreya Dhanwanthary’s brainchild and she’s pulled it off quite well.
For starters, the makers haven’t been overambitious and have kept their story elements to a workable minimum. Within this framework, Shreya and her team have delivered an intimate and engaging narrative that’s 8 episodes long, with each episode of around 8 to 10 minutes in duration.
The series revolves around a YouTuber-and-Instagram-influencer-type Nisha, who with 2.1 million followers on a platform like Instagram, is all excited about her upcoming wedding with her boyfriend Rishabh. However, come 24 March and Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces the 21-day lockdown in the country, thus putting an end to Nisha’s wedding plans, which also included other ceremonies such as the haldi, mehendi, sangeet, cocktail, reception... and of course the wedding itself (phew!). Nisha decides to not let the lockdown affect her wedding plans, and convinces everyone involved for an online marriage instead. What follows are episodes of some drama, anxiety and uncertainty as Nisha’s father tests positive for Covid-19, her ex-tries to bulldoze his way back into her life, and the couple even have a last minute rethink on whether they are doing the right thing.
Featuring Shreya Dhanwanthary, Amol Parashar, Mohit Raina, Sonali Sachdev, Sunny Hinduja, Aritro Banerjee, Aishwarya Choudhary and Sharib Hashmi, A Viral Wedding is a quick, feel good watch. You can see that the crew did make an effort to coordinate and create various camera angles, avoid repeating the same background in different scenes and even the VFX of messages popping in and out of the screen is basic but nicely done.
A Viral Wedding is a competent series and Shreya’s performance stands out as natural and spontaneous, we’ll definitely want to see her in much more varied and challenging roles here on. Full marks to the team for putting together this micro-series despite all the constraints they faced. What shines through the most in A Viral Wedding is the team’s passion to create something new with all the limitations at hand. But, would you subscribe to an OTT platform to watch it at a time when the audience is spoilt for choice? Probably not.
Produced and delivered to an OTT platform in a matter of weeks, the series is probably a first wherein the crew of the content created is in a situation similar to the one in which the audience is that is watching it. Unless of course, as Krishna DK put it, someone was watching Titanic, while the ship he or she is in was also sinking!
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