Wedding Season is a 2022 American romantic comedy film directed by Tom Dey from a screenplay by Shiwani Srivastava. The film stars Suraj Sharma, Pallavi Sharda, Rizwan Manji, Veena Sood, Ari Afsar, Sean Kleier, and Manoj Sood.
| Wedding Season | |
|---|---|
 Official release poster | |
| Directed by | Tom Dey |
| Written by | Shiwani Srivastava |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Meena Singh |
| Edited by | David L. Bertman |
| Music by | Jongnic Bontemps Raashi Kulkarni |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Netflix |
Release date |
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Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Wedding Season was released on August 4, 2022.[1]
Plot
editThis film's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (June 2023) |
Asha is an economist who has recently broken off her engagement and left a Wall Street banking career behind to work for a microfinance startup in New Jersey. Asha's mother Suneeta, concerned for her future and against the advice of her husband Vijay, sets up a dating profile for her.
Asha agrees to meet Ravi, who was found through the website his parents signed him up on, under the condition she won't have to meet with any others. Suneeta counterproposes that she attend all of the weddings she's been invited to in order to get her profile deleted from the site.
Their first date goes badly as Asha explains she's only there to appease her mother. She's too bogged down with work, and must focus her next months on reorganizing a pitch for a Singapore investor for their micro-loans project for disadvantaged Southeast Asian women.
Coincidentally meeting again at a wedding, Asha convinces Ravi to pretend that that they are dating at various weddings throughout the summer to ease the pressure from everyone to find someone. Asha and Ravi slowly become mutually interested, as they little by little get to know each other.
Out with her boss James seeking donors, Asha learns that Ravi is secretly a wealthy DJ called DJ Spellbound. She and Ravi step out to talk, and he further confides in her. They are about to kiss when Yoshi radically alters the set, so Ravi has to save it.
After another wedding, Ravi takes Asha his little-used apartment and he details some of his philanthropic endeavors. They kiss, and she soon falls asleep, exhausted. In the morning they agree to keep their mutual interest secret.
Asha's pitch is so successful the Singapore group offers ten million more in addition to another group named Red Star. She is offered a London executive promotion in their South Asian division.
Suneeta mistakes Asha's text to her sister Priya about her 'big news' as news of her engagement to Ravi. The families plan a surprise lunch, during which Asha's sister Priya accidentally confesses the deception and Ravi admits that he dropped out of MIT and has no intention of getting a more socially acceptable career. He also lets slip that he is the donor behind Red Star Standard who donated to Asha's company and got her the promotion.
Enraged, Asha ends their relationship because of Ravi's dishonesty. She no longer trusts him, and Ravi declaring that he has loved her since the day they met doesn't dissuade her from walking away and blocking him.
Later, Ravi argues with his parents about their disappointment in him. They resent the loss of years between them, although he points out that he is here now. Ravi announces that he and Yoshi are booked to go on a new DJing tour.
Finding it difficult to wrap her head around the idea of leaving her family for London, James encourages her as he'd left Jamaica for England years ago. Her dad comes to work, also encouraging her to go.
Priya gets cold feet just before her wedding. Asha encourages her, realizing in turn that she truly loves Ravi. She goes to his family's restaurant, sees him with another woman, and gives a speech about what a great guy he is. Priya and Nick marry and introduce DJ Spellbound at the reception. Ravi and his parents reconcile, he admits his job to the community, and gets back together with Asha.
Cast
edit- Suraj Sharma as Ravi
- Pallavi Sharda as Asha
- Rizwan Manji as Vijay, Asha's father
- Arianna Afsar as Priya
- Sean Kleier as Nick
- Veena Sood as Suneeta, Asha's mother
- Manoj Sood as Dinesh, Ravi's father
- Sonia Dhillon Tully as Veena
- Ruth Goodwin as Tina
- Damian Thompson as James
- Subhash Santosh as Darshit
- Julius Cho as Yoshi
Production
editIn 2018, Shiwani Srivastava's script, Wedding Season, placed in multiple screenwriting competitions, including the Academy Nicholl Fellowship, Final Draft's Big Break, and the ScreenCraft Comedy Competition. After winning the ScreenCraft Comedy Competition, the ScreenCraft team introduced her to an executive at Netflix, as well as her literary manager at Affirmative Entertainment. As a direct result of those introductions, Wedding Season was sold to Netflix.[2]
In March 2021, was announced that Suraj Sharma and Pallavi Sharda would star in an upcoming romantic comedy film titled Wedding Season, written by Shiwani Srivastava and directed by Tom Dey for Netflix.[3] Later the same month Rizwan Manji and Ari Afsar joined to the cast.[4] On April 15, 2021 Sean Kleier also was set to star.[5]
Principal photography began on April 19 and concluded on May 31, 2021, in Toronto, Canada.[6][7] The film included outdoor and restaurant scenes shot in the Gerrard India Bazaar area of Toronto and the Lahore Tikka House restaurant.
Reception
editOn the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of 17 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.2/10.[8]
References
edit- ^ "Wedding Season Yet Another Movie On Same Old Pretend Relationships?". SheThePeople.tv. July 7, 2022. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
- ^ "How a ScreenCraft Writer Sold Her Film 'Wedding Season' to Netflix". ScreenCraft. August 2, 2022. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
- ^ Grater, Tom (March 3, 2021). "'Life Of Pi' Actor Suraj Sharma To Star With Pallavi Sharda In Netflix Pic 'Wedding Season'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
- ^ Grater, Tom (March 22, 2021). "'Schitt's Creek' & 'Hamilton' Stars Join Netflix Comedy 'Wedding Season'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 18, 2021.
- ^ Grater, Tom (April 15, 2021). "Sean Kleier Joins Netflix's 'Wedding Season'; Dark Star Buys 'The Last Matinee'; Gravitas Picks Up 'Eye Without A Face' – Film Briefs". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 18, 2021.
- ^ "What's Shooting". ACTRA Toronto. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
- ^ "Film and TV Projects Going Into Production - Wedding Season". Variety Insight. Archived from the original on March 15, 2021. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Wedding Season". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
