Made In Heaven

As a girl from a middle class family, my mother always told me, "Shaadi hogi toh sab thik ho jaayega." (Translation: Everything will be fine once  you get married.) Infact she's screaming this in my ears right now as I type this. I want to ask her the definition of the word 'thik'. How will things change? Does thik signify perpetual happiness or  just a series of adjustments? 

Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti's Made in Heaven gave me the answers that I already knew but hesitated to accept. Good people often screw up and make decisions that they think will improve their lives. Years of social conditioning forces them to think if they get married, if they get rich, if they became successful, they will be settled happily ever after and their lives will be picture perfect.  

Picture perfect they are, but only in photographic frames. Everything looks flawless and affluent if you look only at the picture. But humans and their emotions are beyond their frozen, captured moments; they're alive. The gloss wears off to reveal infidelity of persons and life itself. You may cover your wounds and scratches with the fanciest band-aid but it has be ripped off one day to reveal the scraped skin that must see the light of the day to heal. 

Whether it's the middle class Jazz, the now-affluent Tara or the born with a silver spoon Faiza, or even the numerous brides in the show, they must all confront their discomfort, their unfortunate circumstances in order to achieve their dreams by hook or by crook and be equally ready for the consequences.  

On September 6, 2018 the honourable Supreme Court of India decriminalized Section 377 and even though, a major part of the society still opposes  the rights of  the LGBTQIA+, at least now the existence of Karan and Nawab is legal. Even though Ramesh Gupta is still hiding, at least now he has the assurance that it's not a crime. At least now they all can breathe freely. 

At the end of the day, we the viewers feel like Kabir who shoots aesthetic, romantic videos of couples but is aware that the people, the decisions, the pain, the wide smiles behind these perfect pictures are anything but that.   

Bollywood has always been sugarcoating the truth and telling you that, 'Love is enough.' Made in Heaven exposes the bitter revelation that love between two friends is enough to sail through the toughest storm but it isn't enough to sustain a marriage alone. 

Meanwhile Ma, I wish I could tell you that, "Kabir may not love Jazz, but even with all her problems she'll be more than okay. Tara didn't find her true self, her true happiness because she got married, she found it despite it. I may never find a boy or maybe I will, I don't know. But what I do know is that shaadi ho ya nahi, end mai sab thik ho jaayega."          

(Translation: Irrespective of marriage, everything will be fine.)