Indian Matchmaking

I fast forward whenever Apanra came to the screen. I can't even see her. I feel sorry for whoever is going to marry this annoying piece of 💩.

#StayAwayFromAparna #AparnaWillRuinYourLife.

You will love the effervescent Nadia. And then you'll love the humble lawyer Sekhar. And then you'll love the gentle giant Vyasar. And then the cute vet Rashi. You will not like the stubborn Aparna at first. But over the season, you'll start to warm up to her and actually root for her to find love. You'll roll your eyes at the hard-to-please Pradyumna and then you'll feel the warm fuzzies when the gorgeous Rushali tames him with just one smile. And Sima. She's your typical matchmaker auntie and if you're a woke liberal, she'll have you fuming in 5 minutes and you'll label her and the show pregressive. But by the end of the season, you'll be admiring her for the job she manages to do with the slick finesse of Winston Wolfe. Like her or not, she's the real MVP. Agree that some of the show may be scripted, but these are real people and real stories and the reality of how thousands of Indians are approaching marriages even today. If you're not able to appreciate it, clearly you're missing the forest for the trees and you're busy being offended because you think you are some kind of flag bearer of Indian culture done right. But you aren't. So stop hating and give this show a chance.

This show is everything I love about a good Indian melodrama: children who disappoint, comedy villains, neurotic mothers, ruthless aunty rivalries and savage passive aggression. What's not to like?

This show is well done. It pulls the curtain off and shows India's elite for what they are.

In fact, it is a very white washed show and the warts are all hidden. There is no talk of dowry, honour killings, inter-caste marital trouble and a lot else.

In a way, Indian Matchmaking was needed to show Netflix woke peeps just how medieval our thinking is. All the affectations notwithstanding, marriage boils down to your partner being from a "good family" (Code for caste) or "fair-skinned" or "not from a small town" even if we serve "Miso Paneer" or have been to the "Bolivian salt flats". It might seem weird initially, but it's actually just so telling how so many millenials and NRIs, many who carry a chip on their shoulders, are the worst perpetrators of some of these crazy values.

The fact that so many people cringed watching it only proves how real those people felt to us. How familiar the settings, the relations, the pandits were. And how real an aunty Sima Aunty was. The appeal lies in the fact that whether you laugh or scream it's difficult to deny that the whole thing has a wallop of truth to it.

It shows you that those people are not a small segment of society. This is still Us in 2020.

Disclaimer: I am not Indian. Found this show via an Instagram account I follow. Some of the characters I found very real, complex and charismatic. Other story lines I turned out. Overall, glad I watched this. It was entertaining, funny at times, poignant.