What Is the Story About?
Prime Video’s Made In Heaven Season 2 picks up the story six months after the events of the debut season. Karan Mehra (Arjun Mathur) and Tara Khanna’s (Sobhita Dhulipala) fledgling wedding planning business ‘Made In Heaven’ is still struggling financially, while trying to snare the biggest wedding gigs in town. Ramesh Jauhri (Vijay Raaz), the duo’s business partner from the end of last season, brings in his wife Bulbul Jauhri (Mona Singh) as auditor. Transwoman Meher Chaudhary (Trinetra Haldar) joins the company as production head this season. The team, along with videographer Kabir (Shashank Arora) and Jaspreet ‘Jazz’ Kaur (Shivani Raghuvanshi), try to keep the company afloat, along with fighting energy-sapping personal demons.
Made In Heaven Season 2 is written by created and written by Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar, co-written by Alankrita Shrivastava, and directed by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, Alankrita Shrivastava, Nitya Mehra and Neeraj Ghaywan. It is produced by Tiger Baby Films and Excel Entertainment.
Performances?
Made In Heaven Season 2 is one of the most well-cast and well-performed shows of recent times. The choice of actors, apart from the primary cast, picked to play pivotal roles in the series is applause-worthy.
The primary cast delivers superlative performances that remain etched in the mind for long after. Sobhita Dhulipala’s Tara, Arjun Mathur’s Karan, Shashank Arora’s Kabir, Shivani Raghuvanshi’s Jazz are equally impressive in the new season. Vijay Raaz, Kalki Koechlin, Jim Sarbh are excellent too.
But the two outstanding performers in Made In Heaven Season 2 are undoubtedly Mona Singh as Bulbul Jauhri, and Trinetra Haldar as Meher. Mona Singh’s Bulbul starts off on an unsavory note, but soon ingratiates herself into our hearts, a testament to Mona Singh’s fantastic acting abilities. Real-life transwoman Trinetra Haldar brings both poise and poignancy to her role of talented production head Meher, who happens to be trans. It’s a crisp, bracing performance from Haldar.
The guest actors in the series, Radhika Apte, Neelam Kothari, Dia Mirza, Neil Bhoopalam, Sarah Jane Dias, Sanjay Kapoor, Samir Soni, Mrunal Thakur, Zayn Marie Khan, each bring a nuanced subtlety and unique complexity to their individual characters. It’s a tremendous ensemble cast that adds a distinctive flavour to the narrative.
Analysis
Those who’ve watched Made In Heaven Season 1 will know that Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti’s pathbreaking series is all about the big fat Indian wedding and the hype and hoopla associated with it. Just like the debut season, Made In Heaven Season 2 showcases a different couple looking to get hitched in every episode, each with its own unique complexities and issues.
However, in the garb of the wedding planning business, the makers shine a blazing light on the deep-rooted regressive stereotypes prevalent in Indian society. Each episode ends with a damning indictment of the hypocrisy and two-facedness of the upper crust, the blatant ‘isms’ we all live with and accept as part of our culture – casteism, classism, sexism, ageism, colourism and more.
There’s a dark-skinned bride, who falls prey to the false charms of Glutathione injections to make her skin fairer and up to the standards of the groom’s mother and society at large. Another is a successful woman, at the receiving end of assault and physical abuse from her to-be husband. A third faces slurs and barbs due to her lower-caste status, her globally-recognised achievements be damned. A same sex couple, polygamy, a rare older woman-younger man relationship, all of them find space in the cluttered storyscape of Made In Heaven Season 2.
Through it all, the series paints a stark picture of the prejudiced, outdated, regressive and blatantly biased practices prevalent in Indian society. No prejudice present in Indian society is spared. By showcasing every regressive Indian custom and stereotype on screen, Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti’s Made In Heaven Season 2 is a giant-sized mirror that simply reflects back to us a crystal clear picture of what we really are; of the deep malaise in our society and culture — a malaise we accept as custom.
Unlike last season, however Made In Heaven Season 2 goes a step further, and touches upon hitherto unaddressed issues – the polygamy that is a part of the Muslim community and religion, for instance. It takes guts to touch upon the extremely sensitive issue. But the makers have pulled it off with aplomb and a heartwarming sensitivity. Likewise, the issues faced by transpersons are handled with subtlety and empathy – a first for the Indian content space.
Not everything about Made In Heaven Season 2 is as praiseworthy, however. The series is too lengthy, cluttered and over-stuffed – the writers have conjured every possible problem with Indian society they could think of and stuffed it into seven, overly long episodes. At 70 – 75 minutes per episode, the series is a stretch and a drag, a formidable watch that needs tonnes of patience to sit through to the end. Watching the never-ending parade of oft-repeated issues, albeit in beautifully-shot visuals, gets quite monotonous and humdrum after a while.
The narrative also gets quite repetitive after a while, with spiritually identical sequences playing out in a tedious cycle – Karan’s downward spiral into drug abuse and gambling, his troubled relationship with his mother, Dhruv’s acrimonious behavior, Meher’s ordeals with rude men, Kabir and Jazz’s subplot, and more.
To sum it up, Made In Heaven Season 2 is a well-made show, but not as thrilling, engaging or affirmative as its debut season. It’s a good one-time watch, but not something one would want to rewatch or watch while having dinner.
Music and Other Departments?
The music in the series is upbeat and uplifting. Tanay Satam and Nikos Andritsakis’ cinematography is pretty as a picture and dream to watch. The lovingly shot frames elevate the series by notches. The editing could have been crisper.
Highlights?
The casting and performances
The production values and technical aspects
The topnotch making and treatment
Drawbacks?
Too long
Too cluttered and overstuffed
Repetitive sequences
Did I Enjoy It?
Yes
Will You Recommend It?
Yes
Made In Heaven S2 Series Review by Binged Bureau
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