Wedding Season is a smart & affectionate diaspora Rom-Com that makes great use of its charming lead couple

In Wedding Season, the new Netflix rom-com directed by Rob Dey, the plot revolves around Ravi ( Suraj Sharma) and Asha ( Pallavi Sharda), two second-generation Indian-Americans whose parents badly want to see their kids together with someone. The desire becomes hilariously evident and literal in an off-hand moment early on where, after yet another heated discussion about Asha’s marriage, her mother Suneeta (Veena Sood) places the laptop at the dinner table right next to Asha, with the still photo of a prospective groom grinning back at everyone. It’s this sense of glee with which Wedding Season embraces its stereotypes, that makes it such a fun watch. The plot follows the usual rhythms of a standard rom-com, following every trope that we associate a film like this with. The lovers-to-be realise in their first meet that they are poles apart from each other, so much so that Asha just has to say to Ravi, “this is never going to happen.” There are the supportive colleague friends who offer insightful advice just when our leads need it. There are the intimidating business clients who melt to our protagonists’ charm for a make-or-break deal. There’s the emotional dinner table talk with a parent who suddenly extends the kind of support their child is seeking. There have been so many of these over-the-top American films about Indian diaspora that it’s hard to remain optimistic about a film that on the surface carries the same set of tropes associated with this sub-genre, but Wedding Season remains refreshing in its wit and warmth. While the film is equally about two unlikely people coming together, it’s the relentless generation gap-induced banter that keeps the narrative pacy and busy, with the ever-irreconcilable differences between the young and the old forming the heart of the narrative. Every character who is not a millennial is painted in broad caricaturish hues. We have everything from parents wishing for their children a secure job profile to nosy neighborhood aunties with zero self-awareness who nag our protagonists a little too much for comfort.To its credit, Wedding Season is never afraid of playing on the stereotypes, and toes that line pretty well where the broad strokes remain amusing without becoming grating or crutched upon. In one of my favouritest moments of the film, all four of them raise a toast as they declare, “what would our children do without us? They would be penniless and barren.” Later, when the two protagonists begin to bond, we see the parents ever-so-ready with their camera on the ringside, clicking away their off-springs like they were Zendaya and Tom Holland. All the actors playing the parent figures - Veena Sood, Rizwan Manji, Manoj Sood, Sonia Dhillon Tully - imbibe that sense of gleeful oblivion, bringing a goofy energy to the narrative. The film also never picks a side - the parental transgressions are largely played for laughs, rarely treated with an air of normalcy. Their actions, while amusing, remain questionable - as we root for our protagonists who continue to resist all the boundary-breaching. Also, as Asha realises eventually, the younger generation has more in common with their elders than they want to believe - because eventually, everyone likes to pretend about something. The film doesn’t always hit its emotional notes right, especially visible in one of the wedding sequences where Asha tears up after hearing a wedding speech from an inter-faith couple. The finale too is almost embarrassingly mawkish, and perhaps the only segment which doesn’t deftly walk the tightrope between using the stereotypes and crawling upon them. While Wedding Season also becomes relatively forgiving towards Ravi for his transgressions, writer Shivani Shrivastava at the same time lends a lot of dignity and autonomy to Asha who continues to stick to her guns and has no qualms in confronting the people who wrong her in big ways and small. What also keeps us invested and engrossed is the disarming charm and chemistry between its two lead players. Suraj Sharma has acquired a casual ease to himself over the years and looks perfectly at home playing a slacker who might be more accomplished than he gives the airs of being. Pallavi Sharda is the biggest surprise package of the film. It’s a travesty that Bollywood never utilized her well - but in Wedding Season, Sharda more than proves her riveting screen presence and her capability of doing wonders with a well-etched part. The director utilises their chemistry to great effect, especially in the first moments where they finally embrace their relationship and the wedding events with the joy and zest those occasions deserve. There is a beautiful moment where Asha and Ravi seamlessly break into a Salsa jig, and the sequence blends into a montage of them dancing and having a ball at all the weddings they once found obligatory about. In these moments, the film comes alive and is very infectious in its energy and humor, and warmth, despite some really awkward in towards the last act. Talking about the last act brings us to Nick (Sean Kleier), Priya’s fiance, and the classic overcompensating white man. Nick is always curious to learn more about the culture he is marrying into. He is established as a neurosurgeon at one point, which makes his antics all the more hilarious and heartwarming. He doesn’t know that Indians don’t roll their Rs, his prayer-offering at Hindu temples look like some kind of a Yoga pose, but he keeps at it. His involvement in the film is a pleasant detour and yet remains in sync with the over-the-top quality of the film’s universe. And even if your response is to cringe during the finale that incorporates every possible Rom-Com cliche, how can you resist a smile when Nick eventually arrives at his own wedding on a dummy elephant? Wedding Season might feel overdone at places, but at a runtime of 97 minutes, it remains a breezy and fun watch overall that knows how to have fun with the cliches. Wedding Season is streaming on Netflix

BH Harsh is a film critic who spends most of his time watching movies and making notes, hoping to create, as Peggy Olsen put it, something of lasting value. Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News,  India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.