The first season of the Indian series Made In Heaven took the world by storm because of its lavish representation of Indian weddings combined with its social messaging about society in general. The show targets Delhi, considering it’s the home base for the wedding planners Tara and Karan, whose wedding company is the namesake of the series. Back in 2019, the show was both entertaining and noteworthy for far more than just the glamor of the weddings it depicted. Made In Heaven follows the lives of these two best friends who have started this wedding planning company. Apart from showing us how hard the work really is, it also expands to their personal lives and each of their own individual issues. Four years later, it’s hard to remember the little details, but the show takes you right back to the heart of it all without any trouble. While some of us may have forgotten some of the characters, there’s just enough background to each of them not to feel the need to go back and watch the previous season. The second season turns it down a notch with all the sexual content and focuses more on the dramatic aspect of things.
While some episodes straight up feel like political statements from writers Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti, and Alankrita Shrivastava, there’s more depth in each individual character this season too. What makes this show so likeable, despite unlikeable or unrelatable characters, is their reliability with each other. Specifically, leads Tara and Karan both make terrible choices, but somehow it works because they care about each other too much to let it become a mess. This time around, there are huge conflicts between the two, as we can see in the poster, and it plays out pretty well with both of them learning from their mistakes and also taking a stand for themselves. Before I talk more about the characters, I have to commend every star of the show for doing an impeccable job in their roles.
As if Sobitha Dulipala’s gorgeous looks were not captivating enough, her acting skills are just as impressive for this highly troubled character. Tara is easy to dislike, but she’s also understandable. A lot of what she does can be considered ethically ambiguous, but the actress does a great job of balancing out the fear, sadness, and entitlement of the situation to make it believable. Arjun Mathur returns as Tara’s best friend, Karan. His arc is much more dangerous this season. Karan’s life has already been such a mess, but there’s a lot more happening with him that is hard on both his character and the company. It’s appreciated that Arjun acknowledges having taken an opportunity for a role that could’ve gone to a gay actor because of how times have changed over the past four years, but the character remains a well-executed representation of the queer community in an industry that needs to learn a lot.
Jim Sarbh, Kalki Koechlin, and Vijay Raaz are as good as before, but we get stellar performances from Shivani Raghuvanshi and Shashank Arora, whose love story is further explored this season. But the highlights this season are the two new members of the Made in Heaven team, Mona Singh as Bulbul Jauhri and Trinetra as Meher. As expected from the show, we get to see a range of characters from different walks of life, and both of these characters really drive that notion home. Meher’s self-assured journey definitely feels like it positively impacts the trans community while also bringing out some of the prejudices of our society in a decent manner. Of course, we can’t forget the bazillion cameos by many of our favorite stars in the show. We have Radhika Apte, Mrunal Thakur, Sanjay Kapoor, Shibani Dandekar, Dia Mirza, and so many more excellent actors doing their little parts this grand wedding season. This one really takes the cake; Anurgah Kashyap is in the mix too. Everyone does a wonderful job, even if sometimes the characters seem to be going a little overboard.
As expected from Made In Heaven, every set is stunning, every wedding theme is a sight for sore eyes, and the costume design is jaw-dropping, with a special cameo by Sabyasachi Mukherjee.
Made In Heaven can definitely be seen as a feminist show; after all, it’s written by three women. But it’s more than that, too. While not everybody may feel like they’re a part of that world or even want to be a part of that world, the drama is addicting, and the little messages are clear as day. For some, it may seem too on the nose, but for others, it may be a big part of their own lives. It’s a perfectly binge-able show that will transport you into the world of Indian weddings while also showing you the harsh realities that happen behind the scenes. The show definitely explores a lot of different themes in its short seven episodes, but it doesn’t come across as all over the place. There is one particular storyline that felt a little bit dragged out, though, and did not need to be stretched across multiple episodes. Episode 7 definitely has a little bit of an emotional impact after the journey the whole show puts us through, and it is a perfect way to end things this season.
Overall, Made In Heaven Season 2 is almost as good as Season 1, but it just lacks that extra wow factor because we’ve seen it all once before. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth watching. It tackles a different set of issues and has a lot more density for our principal characters, whose lives we become quite invested in. As the theme music starts playing, be ready to tune into all the drama and sit back and enjoy the show. The series never gets boring because of the anthological aspect of different weddings in each episode. I’d give Made In Heaven Season 2 a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars. It’s definitely not as path-breaking as season 1, but it’s still entertaining. At the end of the day, it’s also something to get people talking, and certain things definitely need that push!
