It is all about accepting differences - spoiler alert
I have never reviewed a movie, much less a series. In fact, there were a lot of firsts with this series, Made in Heaven.
It is the first Indian web series, I have watched
It is the first series, I have binge watched
It is the first series, I have rewatched (all 9 episodes, no less)
And now it shall be the first series I write about
Quite a hard hitting series and so tastefully done! When you include ostentatious weddings, systemic misogyny, anti LGBT rhetoric, myopic views, current political climate, the complete lack of correlation between being educated and belief in superstition and the intersection of class with progress, you have a huge canvas to work on. To be able to do that, without coming across as preachy is a skillful act by itself. To be able to do that without judging is pure art.
There were two scenes that stand out for me. The second (which I shall write about first) was where the male protagonist spends some time in prison under article 377 and comes out to meet his friend, pushing her away claiming to be filthy only to be rebuffed by a 'I don't care'. One of the many scenes that portray friendship that most people can only dream of.
The first and more powerful one is the female protagonist refusing to judge a woman who agrees to take money to not press charges against someone who molested her saying, 'she is a woman and that is why I will not judge her'. Powerful statement that.
It is easy to take the high moral ground when you are not the victim. It is harder to accept decisions as individual adult decisions taken in context of lives led. At the end of the day, it is about accepting something which is wrong to you but feels right to someone else. It is not different from accepting someone with differences in religious beliefs or sexual orientation. If you are going to be hard headed about your beliefs and wanting to thrust them down everyone else's throat saying that is the right way to do something, you are no different from a religious hardliner or right/left leaning political troll.
What 'Made in heaven' achieves is to make us understand our diversity in who we are, be it in thoughts, actions, beliefs and behaviour. All the characters are grey, there is no binary good or bad. It forces us to understand each character, accept people as they are, character flaws et al. It teaches us the importance of having your own views but being able to transcend that to hear out opposing views and then create a holistic landscape that accepts and inculcates these views. We need to reset our narrow thought processes (whichever end of the spectrum that may be). We need to be able to stand up against anti majoritarian views even if it means that we will be called out for it.
The lack of the binary good or evil, automatically forces us to make a choice. Who do we root for? Traditionally, we have always wanted the suffering character who is also good at heart to win, to live happily ever after. But, we are, after all, a sum of our choices and we have made most of the choices on our own. As long as we choose to stick to them or abandon them admitting a mistake and not be hard headed about it, we shall be fine. Nobody is perfect, nobody is always right.
It reminds me of another movie I watched a long time ago. Revolutionary Road. Everyone thinks they are different, they deserve better, they are better, till they realise, they are all the same. Some people just tell a better story.
Accept! People, thoughts, circumstances! Live through the present, not an imagined tomorrow.
Slightly random, this post but then again chaos is beautiful.
It is the first Indian web series, I have watched
It is the first series, I have binge watched
It is the first series, I have rewatched (all 9 episodes, no less)
And now it shall be the first series I write about
Quite a hard hitting series and so tastefully done! When you include ostentatious weddings, systemic misogyny, anti LGBT rhetoric, myopic views, current political climate, the complete lack of correlation between being educated and belief in superstition and the intersection of class with progress, you have a huge canvas to work on. To be able to do that, without coming across as preachy is a skillful act by itself. To be able to do that without judging is pure art.
There were two scenes that stand out for me. The second (which I shall write about first) was where the male protagonist spends some time in prison under article 377 and comes out to meet his friend, pushing her away claiming to be filthy only to be rebuffed by a 'I don't care'. One of the many scenes that portray friendship that most people can only dream of.
The first and more powerful one is the female protagonist refusing to judge a woman who agrees to take money to not press charges against someone who molested her saying, 'she is a woman and that is why I will not judge her'. Powerful statement that.
It is easy to take the high moral ground when you are not the victim. It is harder to accept decisions as individual adult decisions taken in context of lives led. At the end of the day, it is about accepting something which is wrong to you but feels right to someone else. It is not different from accepting someone with differences in religious beliefs or sexual orientation. If you are going to be hard headed about your beliefs and wanting to thrust them down everyone else's throat saying that is the right way to do something, you are no different from a religious hardliner or right/left leaning political troll.
What 'Made in heaven' achieves is to make us understand our diversity in who we are, be it in thoughts, actions, beliefs and behaviour. All the characters are grey, there is no binary good or bad. It forces us to understand each character, accept people as they are, character flaws et al. It teaches us the importance of having your own views but being able to transcend that to hear out opposing views and then create a holistic landscape that accepts and inculcates these views. We need to reset our narrow thought processes (whichever end of the spectrum that may be). We need to be able to stand up against anti majoritarian views even if it means that we will be called out for it.
Psychiatrist Salman Akhtar, brother of our own lyricist Javed Akhtar, said it beautifully in an essay on “The six burdens of sanity” some years ago. These six burdens are: factual uncertainty (we can never have all the facts to find out the truth); conceptual complexity (our interpretation of the world can never be fully correct, which explains why we like stereotypes); moral ambiguity (right and wrong are often contextual); cultural impurity (our search for purity in race, caste, or religion is flawed, but we are unable to accept it); personal responsibility (bad things happen, and it could be our fault); and mortality (whether we like it or not, we all have to hand in the pail, and this is scary).
The lack of the binary good or evil, automatically forces us to make a choice. Who do we root for? Traditionally, we have always wanted the suffering character who is also good at heart to win, to live happily ever after. But, we are, after all, a sum of our choices and we have made most of the choices on our own. As long as we choose to stick to them or abandon them admitting a mistake and not be hard headed about it, we shall be fine. Nobody is perfect, nobody is always right.
It reminds me of another movie I watched a long time ago. Revolutionary Road. Everyone thinks they are different, they deserve better, they are better, till they realise, they are all the same. Some people just tell a better story.
Accept! People, thoughts, circumstances! Live through the present, not an imagined tomorrow.
Slightly random, this post but then again chaos is beautiful.
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