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Cast: Sobhita Dhulipala, Arjun Mathur, Mona Singh, Shashank Arora, Jim Sarbh, Kalki Koechlin, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Trinetra Haldar, Vijay Raaz & ensemble.
Creator: Zoya Akhtar & Reema Kagti.
Director: Zoya Akhtar-Reema Kagti, Neeraj Ghaywan, Alankrita Shrivastava & Nitya Mehra
Streaming On: Amazon Prime Video
Language: Hindi & English (with subtitles).
Runtime: 7 Episode Over 60 Minutes Each.
Made in Heaven Season 2 Review: What’s It About:
Six months from the chaos that happened in the finale of the last season, Karan (Arjun) and Tara (Sobhita) are now busy bringing their lives on track. The change is that Made In Heaven now struggles to bring in big paychecks, and Tara is struggling for money after a long time. New characters are introduced, weddings happen, and their chaotic life only intensifies to find its temporary redemption.
Made in Heaven Season 2 Review: What Works:
Back in 2018, Made In Heaven entered our lives like a storm, a storm that awakened us for good and made us ask for content that was beyond black and white. Fictional characters that are human and not written in broad strokes. What worked for the show? The glitz and glamour of the big fat Indian wedding culture, or the messed up lives of these very complex people? It is the fact that it was grey people who were driving things. They could be villains in someone else’s books, but were heroes in theirs, and as audience, you weren’t let to see anybody as the antagonist. People are made by their bad decisions and cherished by the good ones, and Made In Heaven stood right on that line.
With season 2, we were prepared to see these people hit the rock bottom and bounce harder. This is, of course, not a rags-to-riches story, but a story that is about people who are now on the verge of making some more questionable decisions. The writing room, including terrific women like Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti, Alankrita Shrivastava, and directors like Nitya Mehra and Neeraj Ghaywan by their side, have full control of their material. The narrative is still very much about the darkness that hides behind all the fairy lights and flowers that these wedding planners use, and the show is about scratching the surface to meet that darkness and making peace with it but on one’s own terms.
The writing this time isn’t interested in taking it any slow. You already know Tara is as grey as one can get, but that is not why you hate her. She climbed the ladder and is now back on ground, looking at the ladder to climb it again. Jazz is also Tara but in a different circumstances. Karan is busy navigating his life and s*xuality. Kabir is stuck somewhere, and that is many of us. Add to this mix a woman with a traumatic past but still headstrong (Mona), and a woman who has transitioned and now seeks acceptance from the world, but also won’t wait for it to be given but demand it (Trinetra).
Made In Heaven Season 2 is aware of its voice. It isn’t a script written with a highlighter by the side. It wants everything to blend organically, like life where you don’t live in chapters. We meet new brides, and like the last season, they represent a societal evil and taboo. There is infidelity, age gaps, abusive relationships, racism, casteism, polygamy, and the shallow world of the actors, and each narrative is handled by the director that suits it the best. Like Ghywan gets to tell the stories of infidelity and casteism, and he is the best choice to tell the latter. Kudos to him for showing a Buddha traditional wedding happening in a posh setup. Such a welcoming change.
The power of Made In Heaven this time around is in the fact that it has explained to its audience that these individuals don’t stand on your moral compass., and theirs is broken. So when the hero of the show (Tara) decides to con her ex-husband just to defeat him, she still is the hero of the show when she walks out of the room in style. Because she is the same woman who took his side when a judge gave her an opportunity to make physical abuse and dowry as the ground of divorce. I chuckled hard when the judge said, “I am known to be a feminist judge,” I see you, Nitya!
Made In Heaven season 2 also goes meta in many ways. Sabyasachi plays himself, Anurag Kashyap pops up as himself, a character climbs the stairs of Théâtre Lumière, where the Cannes Film Festival takes place. It does help in making us feeling like it is happening somewhere around us.
The technical department and the production teams are, for lack of a word exquisite. I was busy spotting Sabyasachi outfits in the first two episodes and feeling like only Zoya and Sabya could fix me now. The set designs, and costumes are perfect. Add to it that DOP Nikos Andritsakis using his camera to weave his own tale. Everytime someone wears their heels, especially Trinetra, he makes sure he zooms. When Tara, dressed in couture with her Sabyasachi bag hung on the back of her chair, sits at a normal fine dining where the world looks normal, and she is a misfit, he zooms out and makes you feel that. A frame I will remember for months, if not years at least.
Made in Heaven Season 2 Review: Star Performance:
Sobhita Dhulipala as Tara is a sheer treat. A prim and proper woman who is now out of her elite circus in the normal world. She now travels in cabs, with torn seats (thank Nikos), she is a woman whose grey side was always furled by her mother, but now she has her own mind, with grey somewhere imprinted. It is such a three-dimensional character that is not taking decisions like they were written on paper, but a person who is living life. Dhulipala makes sure the attention is always on her, even when she is in the background in soft focus. She could be in the worst of times but never lets her makeup smudge. The aura of a prim lady remains, with or without the fortune.
Arjun Mathur’s Karan is what the team is concentrating more on this season. For a man who is busy exploring his s*xuality, and now has legal rights to do so (a subtle nod at what happened in the 6 months leap), he is now making the worst decision. He is in that phase of his life. Mathur makes Karan entirely unlikable at a point and does it so well. We have met such careless people, and Arjun’s performance adds so much to the entire experience. Would love to see where he goes if there is a season 3.
Mona Singh is finally getting the spotlight she deserves. A woman who has suffered abuse and now doesn’t want her son to walk a path where he disrespects women, she is so calculated. As an actor, Mona shows her shades, and the transformation is so good. It is her finding her redemption that makes you smile. Talking of smiles, can we applaud the landmark casting of Trinetra Haldar! The best part is that she isn’t hired to tick mark a box but as a full-blown powerful character. She is so good at what she is given and so confident. While I thought her arch deserved a bit more clarity, but this is huge, and the momentum now needs to continue.
Shashank Arora continues to be the voice and a fantastic actor who knows his job. Shivani Raghuvanshi only becomes better. Her personal life is explored in broad strokes, but there is too much on the plate, so many might not see it as a bothering bit. Jim Sarbh, Kalki Koechlin, and others are actors who know what is expected out of them, and they deliver. Also, what is stopping people from employing Dia Mirza? Such a fine performer, and we are not getting enough of her. Radhika Apte deserves a special mention for not just acting but feeling the story she is a part of. You can see the performance coming from a very felt space.
Made in Heaven Season 2 Review: What Doesn’t Work:
While Made In Heaven does tackle everything with nuances and the relationships are handled delicately, the back-to-back episodic marriages and the cause they represent, somewhere ends up making it all feel preachy. The first season had the main story, and episodic brides blend in more organically than this. This ends up also diluting the impact of the product. Some of the weddings don’t hit the bull’s eye, and their cause never grabs our attention like it should.
Some characters are introduced, but their standalone value is not much to remember them. Like Ishwak Singh, who is now the go-to boy to play such parts, he is good in what he does and serves Tara’s storyline well, but as a standalone character, he doesn’t evolve much.
Made in Heaven Season 2 Review: Last Words:
Made In Heaven season 2 is a slow burn that is in no hurry to show you the end. Watch what Zoya and the team have cooked for you and relish it. It’s a long hour’s commitment, so your weekend is sorted.
For more recommendations, read our Kohrra Review here.
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