Warning: spoilers ahead!

Made in Heaven is a very strong and impeccable Indian web series which has been streaming on Amazon Prime since March 8. It can be considered as worthy enough to binge watch on any weekend without even an afterthought. This sharply written series is created by none other than Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti – some of the best storytellers in Indian cinema and directed by Zoya Akhtar, Nitya Mehra, Prashant Nair and Alankrita Shrivastava.

The story revolves around protagonists Tara (Sobhita Dhulipala) and Karan (Arjun Mathur) and their self-established wedding planning company and how they deal with wedding-related issues as well as their personal lives simultaneously. The series consists of a total of nine-episodes and in each episode – a new wedding story is introduced, along with fine execution and a set of recurring characters.

The show is packed with several other characters such as Tara’s husband Adil Khanna (Jim Sarbh), Tara’s close friend Faiza (Kalki Koechlin), Jaspreet (Shivani Raghuvanshi) who works as helper assistant and then Kabir (Shashank Arora) who works as a photographer for the company Made in Heaven. While showcasing the glitz and glamour in the lives of Delhi’s elite, Made in Heaven breaks the glittery portrayal and reveals the pretence complicit in a flashy facade through its characters.

The audience starts understanding the back stories of the leading characters as the story unfolds with every passing episode. Here is some insight into a few of the leading characters:

Tara (Sobhita Dhulipala) – belongs to an impoverished family. She earlier worked as support staff in the company belonging to a business tycoon. She marries Adil (Jim Sarbh) for economic upward mobility, and to become a successful entrepreneur to match the standards of a very elitist society.

Karan (Arjun Mathur) – son of a wealthy businessman, has to pay a debt of 2 crores to his father for a huge loss in the company. He is in the closet and fears his family will find out. The truth gets unveiled when Karan gets arrested under Section 377 of the IPC after his landlord makes a video of him with another man and sends the video to the police, after which Karan gets harassed by a police officer.

Adil Khanna (Jim Sarbh) and Faiza (Kalki Koechlin) – Adil is Tara’s husband and Faiza is her best friend and they both are betraying Tara by having an affair with each other. Things started changing when Tara gets to know about them after they meet with a car accident and get hospitalized.

Kabir (Shashank Arora) – The photographer who works with Tara and Karan in their company Made in Heaven. He is a free spirit and follows a lifestyle dissimilar to others.

Jaspreet (Shivani Raghuvanshi) – Jaspreet aka Jazz is a simple and sober girl from Delhi. She is embarrassed about belonging to a middle-class background.

Unlike several web series, Made in Heaven is one of the series for our society which addresses the struggle of acceptance and keeping up images. One of its outstanding characteristics is it’s showcasing of the truth behind the nexus of gender, class and privilege. The show talks about many major problems in society such as dowry, LGBTQ identity and rights, sexual abuse, harassment and so on.

There are many scenes in the movie that holds up a mirror to society – a society that needs a stricter teacher in order to change and eradicate superficialness, dishonesty and violence. There is a scene where the male protagonist Karan gets harassed by a police officer in prison because of his sexual orientation.

One of its outstanding characteristics is it’s showcasing of the truth behind the nexus of gender, class and privilege.

Another scene comprises Ramesh Gupta (Vinay Pathak), who played the role of Karan’s landlord, hailing Karan’s courage for accepting publicly that he is gay. There is a scene where a prince molests an adolescent girl and he gets away with it easily from by just paying her buy-off of 5 lakhs. A scene that showcased the extent of treating brides’ lives as disposable is one where girls are giving auditions in Ludhiana to get married to a rich NRI.

Made in Heaven has done a phenomenal job in order to make the audience aware of all the social issues, all the unwanted nuisances and abusive patterns that need to be fixed at any cost as soon as possible. Beyond social patterns and on a more personal level – the show does immense justice to the portrayal of loneliness and the craving to belong somewhere – through nuance and layered emotions.

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Featured image used for representational purpose only. Image source: Scroll