Wedding Season is a movie about Asha trying to focus on her new economist job while her mother pressures her into a relationship. When her mother sets up a dating profile for her, she forces Asha to meet Ravi. Ravi is considered to be an eligible bachelor who graduated from MIT at 16 and runs a start-up. Asha devises a plan with him to attend 14 weddings in one summer as a fake couple to get rid of the gossiping aunties, their parents' standards, and dating profiles.
The trailer for the movie looked good and fun to watch. The movie mostly reflected on that initial thought. Netflix has a certain style about their movies, they don't exactly address everything at the end, like the perfect ending. Wedding season also follows that trend.
When I first showed my mom the trailer, she said this was just a Bollywood film in English. She wasn't entirely wrong (especially at the end credits scene), but there was definitely that western feel to the movie. For example, this movie takes place in New Jersey (though it was filmed in Toronto. I could tell by Gerard St.) and the viewer can tell the main characters are westernized and not super knowledgeable about their culture and past. Asha's sister's fiance, Nick, shows more of an effort to learn about their culture than both of them.
The movie tries to destigmatize certain careers and interracial marriages to relate to this generation and to prove to the older generations that these things aren't bad and shouldn't be a problem. Ravi is considered a boy with a bad past, which isn't entirely true considering he still is doing what he was doing in his "past". One aunty in the movie kept saying he is a fraud, foreshadowing his work, past, and livelihood. Ravi's parents kept up the lie in hopes to find a good girl for him to marry. But in the end, it didn't matter since Ravi and his parents revealed the truth about his career and education.
They only showed about 3 weddings in full and the rest were sort of off-screen. The 3 weddings they showed were all interracial weddings. A Hindu girl and a Jewish man (along with their religions' priests), a Muslim man and a Hindu girl (which showed the stigma around the two religions co-existing by their parents rejecting the marriage and not attending), and the main character's sister's wedding, A Hindu girl and a White man (who was fully supportive of her culture, language, and most importantly to him at least, Bollywood). These weddings were special to watch in full because it shows how society is accepting of interracial relationships now. I liked seeing how they incorporated each of their partners' cultures into the wedding ceremonies.
I also loved the montage scene! The song choice was great (Tiptoeing by Hope Tala) and seeing them at each wedding, dancing, having fun, and being close to each other was great to watch! I don't have any bad thoughts about it and this scene might be the most memorable part of the movie for the 2 characters.
They didn't really do great in the ending. It just kinda stopped when they finally got together. They didn't show if the characters got what they wanted in their independent lives and careers. I would've liked to see if Asha followed through in the next step of her career or if she just stayed where she was. My guess is she stayed where she was.
Overall, Wedding Season is a cute romcom and an alright time-passer. I didnt feel super excited for the characters like I usually do, but that still doesn't mean it's a bad movie. It's a great diverse movie. It's what we need after Purple Hearts (another Netflix movie. Good god the clips I've seen). It is a great way to show other people who are unaware of the challenges first-generation children deal with and explains many things about the stigmas we face in our communities.
Rating: 8/10
