Weddings are an essential part of the Indian community. And therefore, the Indian diaspora is heavily invested in the bandwagon of weddings. For parents, marrying their daughter and sons off is of optimum priority even if the concerned individuals are reluctant to partake - this forms the heart of the story in Wedding Season.
Colourful wedding mortgages, overused tropes and a potential happily-ever-after follow. A man and a woman devise a plan to trick their respective parents to believe they are seeing each other to get them off their backs. And their fake dates occur during the weddings of their relatives and family friends to ensure that the ruse has a public audience.
‘Fake relationships’ have always been a hot favourite for all rom-com devotees. The thrill of watching two individuals catch feelings for each other despite attempting their damned best not to is also a heavily overdone trope. So if one does not utilise it well the trope may come across as unimaginative.
And Wedding Season falls into the similar trappings. Although it had the makings of a good rom-com, with two gorgeous leads who find themselves battling their inner demons while trying to navigate through their feelings.
Yet sometimes, the already done-to-death storyline seems like a checklist of trends than an actual film with a beating heart.
A strong female lead, a deceptively rich male lead and cantankerous parents are what is expected from the story. It does not give us more than what we are asking for and becomes part of one of the many passable films that Netflix often churns out to mint money.
Tropes work, they often give comfort to the viewers in question. So no one is complaining. Pallavi Sharda alongside a very dependable Suraj Sharma from the Life of Pi fame is an interesting pair with somewhat crackling chemistry. The costumes are impeccable, with every wedding bringing a host of gorgeous Indian wear.
In the end though, rather than using the tropes to their advantage and writing the characters with a bit more depth, the tropes become a means to an end. And even if we all know what happens at the end of rom-coms, some classics packaged the otherwise cliche stories with a bit more oomph. Take, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, for instance, which took their cultural idiosyncracies and created something hilariously endearing. The same cannot be said about Weddings Season despite the stellar costumes.
The film is available to stream on Netflix.
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