Made in heaven S2: What worked & what didn’t work for me

Made in heaven season 2 was well worth the wait! It was even better than season 1. Brilliant acting & story line.

I absolutely loved the new characters introduced. Particularly Bulbul (a domestic abuse survivor) & Meher (a transgender woman). They are totally breaking gender stereotypes & reinforcing women empowerment in the true sense of the word.

Bulbul comes across as a conflicting character & you soon discover why she is the way she is. She is non apologetic for the choices she has made and rightly so. She has moved on and is trying her best to raise feminist sons.

However, in this season, Tara was a big let down. Everything I liked about her in S1 was gone now. She wasn’t righteous or doing the right thing anymore. Morals she stood up for were not there anymore.  Gold digging aside she isn’t respectful of other\’s differences I felt. She’s obsessed with money & stature right from her upbringing. Now also on the verge of divorce she can’t let go of it. Surely not a likeable character for me. Some may argue, she claimed what’s rightfully hers in a divorce settlement but do you really think so? And was black mail the right way of doing it? I\’m not being idealistic here but just wondering if her claim was justified.

Karan on the other hand is great. I loved how his emotions came across as he’s going through his own internal struggles. He’s a brilliant actor & depicts shades of grey while still making you sympathise with him.

I love how the show has not lost it\’s key essence from S1. It picks contemporary issues still very prevalent in our society & makes us question them. Some of them are so deep seated in our culture that we don’t even realize there’s something wrong with them. They take up a range of complex but relevant themes. Perhaps that is the first step towards bringing about the much needed change.

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Detailed reviews of episodes 

Spoiler alert (so read ahead at your own risk) 

Episode 1 – I absolutely loved the point raised. It’s high time we realise that fair is not lovely.  Also, blindly going in for beauty treatments just to fit into the so-called societal norms is so last century. I\’m glad they touched upon this theme & showed how the next generation is moving away from it. However, it was disappointing in the end, when she still chose to use a fairness cream. That kind of defeated the whole purpose.

Episode 2 – I still can’t believe the bride went ahead with the marriage knowingly. I feel any form of abuse is not acceptable especially if it’s physical. She was well aware & still chose to marry him? For what? I don’t think love alone is an acceptable reason. Marriage cannot change a man! She should’ve arranged counselling for him and been there for him as a friend. But marrying him wasn’t the solution to this. It called out the double standards in seemingly-perfect relationships but I can’t accept this ending! Maybe that’s the reason why in the last episode they briefly showed a news flash were she had filed a case against her husband.

Episode 3 – It was so refreshing to see Neelam-Samir soni Jodi on screen. Their chemistry is amazing. I could relate to Neelam’s strong maternal instinct – Something I developed after becoming a mother too. She knew her son was marrying just for money, not love.

I liked the message that why should parents always make sacrifices. They also touched up on making pre-nups a norm in India. A lovely fairytale ending – I quite enjoyed this episode.

Episode 4 – A Bollywood wedding in France. Loved revisiting many of the places in the French Riveria where we had gone too. The episode in itself lacked the story power that other episodes had. Perhaps they just wanted to force in a celebrity wedding but didn’t know where to take that plot. This turned out to be my least favourite episode of the series.

Episode 5 – Radhika Apte cast as a Dalit girl was impressive. She made a good subtle point that if one moves away from the country they start believing there’s equality but every country has their own set of challenges, even the great USA. Her husband standing up for her added conviction to her decision.

The other wedding seemed like a forced attempt to add inter caste angle. It was dealt at a very superficial level & there wasn’t much substance to that marriage. Like they didn’t explain why she got a divorce in the first place. Was he a good father inspite of not being the ideal husband?

Episode 6 – Dia Mirza is a brilliant actor. Her expressions convey much more than her words. I liked the way she questioned polygamy. Perhaps equality in the true sense of the word would happen only when women are given their rights too.

The lesbian commitment ceremony was a good addition to make the series more inclusive. I liked the powerful statement made by the mother to her husband – It’s not normal for you to tell your adult daughter & wife what to do.

Episode 7 – Sarah Jane gave a beautiful message of self-love and not getting married just for the sake of it. I’m not so sure if I like the forced narrative though but guess it was a decent last episode where they had to close stories of the main protagonists as well.

I sure hope there is a sequel with more such powerful, thought provoking themes.

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