Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Wedding Season’ on Netflix, An Indian-American Rom-Com

From screenwriter Shiwani Srivastava comes an Indian-American romantic comedy about two singles who are reluctantly set up by their parents. The broad strokes of the film ring true for many first-generation Indians in the US, but does the film avoid stereotypical storytelling to get to the heart of the story?

WEDDING SEASON: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Asha (Pallavi Sharda) is a perennially single workaholic who has no interest in settling down just yet, though her more traditional Indian parents worry about her prospects as she gets older. To get her parents off of her back, she makes a deal with them: she’ll meet one last boy named Ravi (Suraj Sharma) and go to all of the season’s weddings in exchange for them deleting her dating profile. When Asha and Ravi meet, they concoct a plan to fake date each other to reduce the amount of gossip about them in the community. But as they start to get to know each other, feelings deepen and secrets come out, and they must decide if they can get past their stubborn exteriors to accept their true feelings.

What Will It Remind You Of?: The premise about fake dating feels reminiscent of another Netflix romantic comedy Holidate in which Emma Roberts stars as a woman who brings a fake date to her family’s Christmas party.

Performance Worth Watching: Suraj Sharma as Ravi is heartfelt, charismatic, and really does feel like a catch that most aunties would co-sign.

Memorable Dialogue: After the couple inevitably has a falling out, Asha finds solace in an unlikely place: her overbearing mother. “I know Ravi is not perfect but I feel he is your happiness,” her mother tells Asha, and it’s a moment where you believe that even despite not seeing eye to eye all of the time, parents sometimes can see what’s in your heart even when you can’t.

Sex and Skin: A few passionate kisses, but nothing explicit.

Our Take: When I first heard about the premise of this film, I groaned a little bit. Another film about Indian people at weddings? Is there nothing else that our culture has to put forth aside from thinking constantly about arranged marriages? Thankfully, I was wrong. Wedding Season isn’t really about weddings. Sure, there’s a montage of the two leads dancing their hearts away and wearing very trendy Indian clothing, but the film is so much more interested in showing that Indian Americans with unconventional interests and jobs are still worthy of love — that biodatas boasting ivy league degrees and high-powered jobs shouldn’t rule the world.

The third act of the film is especially heartwarming in terms of the parental acceptance that both Asha and Ravi receive. Asha is an economist, but had recently accepted a role in a new field that required a pay cut, which worried her parents. Ravi, on the other hand, has a past that ashames his parents, which is made even harder because of the musical career he’s chasing. Both sets of parents have moments of finally understanding their children and sharing their happiness in the fact that they are still thriving despite it all. It reminded me of my parents, who often worry about the unknown — especially when it comes to their kids’ careers — but are undeniably our biggest cheerleaders at the end of the day.

The film also touches on many themes of growing up as the child of an immigrant: Asha comments on how she doesn’t know much about her parents’ lives prior to them having children, and the fake dating storyline comes full circle in an extremely rewarding way that draws parallels between Asha’s predicament and that which her mother endured when she was originally arranged to marry Asha’s father. It breathed new life into what could have been a been-there-done-that cliche.

Of course none of this would be as poignant without great performances from the leads, who are both endearing and funny, and have a lot of chemistry with one another. There are a few difficult Indian accents from the older generation, but those can be forgiven. And there are some character trait stereotypes (of course one of them is a spelling champion, while the other is a math whiz), but I can’t nitpick too much when those details are pushed more into the background of the story. The film earns its heart and feels realistic, and is a great entry into the rom-com genre.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The film finds a way to subvert the fake dating trope and ground it in a way that connects across generations.

Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a TV-obsessed writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared on Vulture, Teen Vogue, Paste Magazine, and more. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.