‘Wedding Season’ movie review: A conventional, entertaining rom-com

A film that faithfully follows all the genre rules, with the pay-off on the right side of entertaining

There is this to say about predictability — there are no surprises; nasty or nice. While it is fun to watch a road movie do a U-turn into vampire territory or a heist movie peppered with the lurching lumbering undead, sometimes it is nice to watch a rom-com that behaves like it is supposed to.

Wedding Season is that movie; totally predictable and gently enjoyable. Good-looking leads, crackling chemistry, heartbreak, making up, the importance of following one’s dreams, and a public declaration of love is all present and correct. If there was one thing missing, it was the mad dash to the airport.

After her engagement with the most eligible “brown bachelor” breaks, high-flying banker Asha (Pallavi Sharda) moves to Jersey to work with a micro-funding organisation in a bid to change the world. Her parents, Vijay (Rizwan Manji) and Suneeta (Veena Sood), like all Indian parents in popular culture, are obsessed with Asha settling down.

On the other side of town, Veena (Sonia Dhillon Tully) and Dinesh (Manoj Sood), who run an Indian restaurant, have the same idea about their son Ravi (Suraj Sharma). Ravi went to MIT at the age of 16 and has a start-up. Both set of parents create unbelievable profiles for their children online and set the two up on a date.

Though the first date is disastrous, Asha and Ravi figure out that the best way to get their parents and the inquisitive, interfering aunties off their case is to pretend to date through the wedding season; obviously they have not watched enough rom-coms.

Through the many colourful weddings, dances and samosas, Asha and Ravi realise their feelings for each other — oh please, that is NOT a spoiler! There is a big presentation for Asha, Ravi has to come clean about his choices, and it all comes to a head at Asha’s sister Priya’s (Arianna Afsar) wedding to brain surgeon Nick (Sean Kleier).

Wedding Season faithfully follows all the genre rules and the pay-off is on the right side of entertaining. It is just what the doctor ordered, especially if you are coming off watching a show with a nightmare serial killer squelch through the eyeballs of his victims.