Aradhika Sharma
Films being made today challenge the ‘happy without a pause’ wedding scenario. There are damaging truths behind the joyful smiles, and all is not the way it seems
Made in Heaven, Zoya Akhtar’s and Reema Kagti’s serial on Amazon Prime, has blown the lid off the façade that Twitter feeds and Instagram posts of weddings seek to disguise. Wedding pictures and videos will invariably portray the ecstatic bride, the preening groom and the sweet, pretty friends, dressed to the nine. The pictures overflow with surreal amounts of happiness and a surfeit of love. Everyone seems to be having a wonderful time, celebrating a union apparently made for eternity in heaven!
Films being made today, however, challenge the ‘happy without a pause’ wedding scenario. There are damaging truths behind the joyful smiles, and all is not the way it seems. Unlike the purely wedding-centric films of the 1990s like Hum Saath Saath Hain and Vivaah and the iconic DDLJ that celebrated the family and the union with music and ceremony, allowing nothing to mar the cloying sweetness, filmmakers today are busting the stereotype of the perfect and traditional marriage scenario and exploring the behind-the-scene stories.
The nine-episode Made in Heaven introduces the viewer to nine separate wedding scenarios. The stories of the two friends Karan (Arjun Mathur) and Tara Khanna (Sobhita Dhulipala), who have a wedding planning company, run through the serial, getting more and more intense with every episode. However, every episode offers different weddings. Behind the scenes, the viewer is exposed to several not-so pleasant facets of the wedding — compromises, snobbery, prejudice, superstition, patriarchy, abuse of power, etc. However, most weddings do take place, and one hopes that they turn out well.
One of the overwhelming themes is the process of the declaration of the gay identity of the protagonist, Karan. Apart from his myriad boyfriends, (Karan has a ‘back story’ as to why he’s commitment phobic) there are two scenarios where gay men opt to get married and have a family rather than come out. Based in the period before 6 September 2018, after which Section 377 was decriminalised, it takes an arrest for Karan to come out in the open too. Sexual identity and preference is, therefore, a major concern.
Additionally, the viewer is introduced to a bride who cheats on her groom, to a political family who practice patriarchy at its worst. Then, there’s a highly educated family who willingly get their daughter married to a tree to ward off evil stars that may have ill-effects on the groom. We meet a seemingly highly cultured family who will band together to condone the sexual assault of a young girl by one of its scions. An episode takes the viewer to a beauty contest in Ludhiana where the prize is a groom from ‘Amreeka’. He has a hidden secret but that’s for his wife to deal with. And then, of course, the omnipresent demand for dowry. Most brides and their families compromise. A few brave souls would rather not. The tone of the show is totally non-judgmental.
Some other recent films have also peeked behind the perfect Instagram wedding pictures where everyone smiles without a care in the world, to find that things are not as rosy as they seem. Veere di Wedding, though a frivolous film, brought out several discussions about sex before marriage, the lack of it post-marriage, orgasms and sex toys and about wedding unions and their umpteen flaws and cracks. Sonam Kapoor, who plays the ‘marriageable’ Sweety in Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, has her own dilemmas about sexual identity that only get resolved once she declares her love to her conservative family. Then Badrinath ki Dulhania has the smart and ambitious Vaidehi (Alia Bhatt) who chooses career over marriage to the ‘eligible’ Badrinath (Varun Dhawan). Based in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, she cocks a snook at the patriarchal setup to strike out on her own in Singapore. The film delivers the message of women empowerment.
Shubh Mangal Saavdhan deals with erectile dysfunction and its effect on a young couple, Mudit and Sugandha, (Ayushmann Khurrana and Bhumi Pednekar) on the verge of wedlock. A remake of the Tamil film, Kalyana Samyal Sadham, the film treats the ‘gents’ problem’ of the ‘chai main dooba hua biscuit’ with humour, while shaking the myths around manhood.
The most recent entrant in the category of films that challenge the hitherto accepted norms is Luka Chuppi, which is set in Mathura. Guddu (Kartik Aaryan) and Rashmi (Kriti Sanon) want to test their compatibility before committing to a marriage and so opt for a live-in relationship. The problem is Rashmi’s father, Vishnu Trivedi (Vinay Pathak), who heads the moral police of the area, Sanskriti Raksha Manch. Without getting preachy, the film takes on moral policing and the refusal of self-appointed moral custodians to permit any kind of sexual agency to the youth.
Nuptials involve individuals with distinct passions, follies, foibles, needs and predilections. Hopefully, the films and shows that reflect these preferences will engender greater visibility and acceptability of the unique needs of people. It’s high time that we accepted that most marriages are made, not in heaven, but right here, on earth.
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2Fv4CKn
via Today’s News Headlines
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