by Kay Curry
Northwest Asia Weekly
On the first weekend of August, two South Asian films hit Netflix: “Wedding Season” and “Honey.”
One, set in the United States, is a romantic comedy about the generation gap and biometric marriage. The other, set in India, is a dark comedy about marital violence that isn’t too funny. Both have rising stars as well as old favorites, and it’s nice to see the latter get more time in the sun. While “Wedding Season” is more enjoyable, “Darlings” is a brave film that falls short of its mark. Both are worth seeing.
In “Wedding Season”, Pallavi Sharda as Asha and Suraj Sharma as Ravi, two modern young men “fake dates” in order to meet Get rid of the support of Indian parents in the long summer wedding schedule. The plot is cliché, but manages to keep it fresh and interesting. Rizwan Manji as Asha’s father is hilarious. You’ll recognize him from the award-winning TV series Schitt’s Creek and more.
Although he plays a “typical” father who goes to the last second with a domineering mother and swoops in to encourage his daughter to follow her dreams or be herself or what have you, all acting is natural and touching.
If it weren’t for the Bollywood dance routine in the finale, I’d call “Wedding Season” the first true Hollywood rom-com featuring a South Asian actor. Don’t get me wrong, I love to dance, but if this turns out to be a light romance movie about an Indian-American frontrunner, I’m ready to impress, this time, without one. It does survive the movie without jumping into the dance (there is dance, but it’s found at any traditional wedding), but the filmmakers couldn’t resist adding a full routine at the end. sigh.
The theme of this film seems to be happiness – how do we achieve it? Parents say “all they want is their child’s happiness”. The children said they were already very happy. But are they? Does happiness mean doing what your parents tell you to do? Asha’s older sister Priya (played by Arianna Afsar) fears she’ll be the first in the family’s long line to screw up a marriage because she’s going to marry a white man (Sean Claire as Nick) and the marriage isn’t set up .
Or does it mean challenging your parents instead of letting them “drown out your inner voice”? Asha wants to be “independent” and do everything on her own (having the absolute smartest boss on the planet goes a long way to career success). Both she and her sister don’t think their unconventional “Western” lifestyle, their parties, or Priya and Nick living together are “good” for their parents (who already know it). Ravi prefers to be a DJ rather than the MIT tech startup path that everyone wants him to take, and that’s how his family portrays him as a potential mate.
There’s a lot of disagreement about what makes a person happy, but in the movie, it all boils down to whether you lied to yourself (or your parents lied for you) and possibly achieve your dream job/partner? Maybe you’re not even sure what or who that is? Or are you yourself (with the same uncertainty)? We know the expected answer, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to do.
As for “Darlings,” many men on social media complained that the film “only contains men who hate men”. The title comes from the way some Indian men call women “darlings”. To me, it alludes to an old-fashioned notion of relationships. “Honey” follows Badru (Alia Butter) as she endures abuse from her husband Hamza (Vijay Verma) in the hope that he will change. Badru finally broke in and got his revenge. According to the critics – I doubt they’ve even seen it – that makes it a man-hating movie.
I would ask, how much does one need to love someone to endure their bad behavior? It reminds me of an old movie, “I Love You To Death,” which is also a dark comedy — except it’s hilarious. “Dear” is not funny. I found what should be funny – Badru and her mom have a way of talking with their eyes and totally understand what the other is saying, but when their mutual friend Zulfi (Roshan Mathew) tries, he fails miserably land. and many more.
To me, it’s more of a horror movie. How many women “suffer” this? Your lover hits you and then spoils you. He’s always in your space, trying to control you, but in the end, he can’t. Badru, who has gone through all stages of being abused, finds that she has struggled to gain Hamza’s respect, but “the respect is mine. Why do I want it?”
The mother, expertly played by Shefali Shah, begs her daughter to leave him. Of course Mom wanted to kill Hamza – what parent wouldn’t? It looks painful. What a man should be miserable about is how bad this man is behaving. Some people can’t stand seeing a woman take revenge. Once the man becomes a victim, everything he did before is conveniently forgotten.
No one should be a victim of abuse. We should praise “Dear” for facing the harsh truth. Given India’s violence against women, such a film is inevitable. If you are a compassionate person, both Hamza and Badru are compassionate figures. They appear to be in love, but are blinded by love or anger. He said he had a “demon” inside him. It’s not his fault. He drinks. He’s been abused at work – justified – but that’s no excuse. “All couples fight,” he told her.
In the film, Badru’s mother tells a fable we’ve all heard, albeit with a changed role. In her version, there is a frog and a scorpion. Scorpion gives Frog a ride and promises not to sting him, but of course it will, and when Frog asks why—and we all know the answer—Scorpion says, “Because I’m a Scorpion. That’s my nature.”
Some people are scorpions. Not everyone. And not all men. There are good men in the movie. The entire police force is working to end violence against women, but they are frustrated by Badrue’s insistence on tackling the issue. If there’s something wrong with this movie, it’s that it’s not being mixed properly, so yes, there’s a chance of it being misread. Putting a sign at the end that effectively says “men should be careful when hurting women” can be a bad move. There’s not enough humor in the movie to get that logo right, or make Badrue’s ending as a free woman satisfying. She should be traumatized, but keep going. That would be a real victory.
Kay can reach info@nwasianweekly.com.
