We have seen so many love stories where the lovers become rebellious, ready to sacrifice everything in order to be together. In some parts of the world, there is the notion of an arranged marriage, which might seem less risky than the former but does not sound as exciting. When love marriage is failing and arranged isn’t as racy, a middle path is inevitable. Make Me A Match brings together both worlds and presents us a concoction of the East and the West. Directed by Heather Hawthorn-Doyle, the film weaves a new-age romance where modernity and tradition are finally juxtaposed harmoniously.
The story of Make Me A Match revolves around an employee of a company specializing in dating apps who hopes to have a perfect love life using the app’s algorithm. When her lover cheats on her, her faith in technology dwindles, and she gets enchanted by the Indian matchmaking style of arranged marriages.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In ‘Make Me A Match’?
Vivi, a successful young woman, seems to have her life in perfect order. On the professional front, she has done wonders for her dating app, Datamate, increasing engagement manyfold. On the personal front, she is in a steady relationship and hopes to marry soon. Her parents quarrel a lot, but hey, isn’t that like everyone’s parents out there? One flaw about her is that she talks about love as if it were a mathematical subject. Working for a dating app company, which is essentially a data-hoarding establishment, she firmly believes in the efficiency of the app’s sacred algorithm, which has worked wonders for its users. She assumes that will be the case for her as well. She met Kenny a year ago through the app and cannot see the signs of their deteriorating relationship. She finds out he is cheating on her, and the whole illusion of the algorithm working for her relationship is shattered at that moment. She breaks up with him on her birthday, and melancholy colors her mood. Soon, she starts to see cracks everywhere. Her parents’ relationship also started disintegrating, and she finds out that the app was actually working for just twenty percent of its users, which was enough for the superiors as it meant millions of dollars of profit. The app was based on users rejoining each year, which meant that after a year, the relationships ended, and people were back to square one, which is where she is now.
The only support comes from her friend Nella, who constantly checks up on her and makes sure she does not succumb to her sadness. In order to cheer her up, she watches some cheesy shows with her, and this is where Vivi accidentally finds Raina Kumar, a middle-aged woman of Indian origin who is known as one of the most prolific matchmakers in the world. Her style is completely foreign to Vivi’s sensibilities, but given that the data-based apps had failed her, she gets excited seeing an alternate way of finding love. She gets her business mind running as well and sets up a meeting with Raina to work out a way to incorporate both Raina’s techniques and the app’s algorithm in order to make an app that would help people find long-lasting love.
Do The Two Styles Of Finding Love Converge?
Raina Kumar agrees to meet with Vivi, and they share their perspectives on finding love. Raina has her own traditional methods, which involve the art of astrology and a study of a person’s overall qualities, based on which a suitable candidate is approached. These ways run over Vivi’s head, as she only understands the algorithm according to which she finds out relevant questions to be formed which help the dating parties. Even though Vivi doesn’t quite get Raina’s method, she watches her show non-stop and wants her to join the company as a consultant for three months, after which her method would be interpreted by the algorithm and enhance the app. Raina is not too keen, as she knows that matchmaking is human art and technology would only botch it up.
Her dilemma is solved by her son, Bhupesh, who convinces her to work with Vivi in order to boost her own business. Raina’s service has been restricted to the Indian community, but Bhupesh was handling his mother’s business and knew that with this venture, her technique could help find love for non-Indians as well. It meant a service on a larger scale, and it was good for business too. Raina agrees after listening to all the essential points. All that was needed was a test subject, who would be studied by Datamate after they underwent Raina’s matchmaking method, and who was better than Vivi herself. She was directly involved with the company and was eager to find love, but could her sensibilities adapt to Raina’s traditional style?
Does Vivi Find Love?
Vivi hesitantly agrees to be Raina’s test subject. Raina asks her to provide biodata for her to start the matchmaking process. In the first step itself, it becomes clear how different the two styles are. On Datamate, quirky questions about one’s likes and dislikes were all the rage, but Raina was more leaning towards answers that would reveal a person’s expectations from marriage. Vivi gets flustered when Raina demands to know upfront if and when she wants kids. This was a question saved for a much later stage for Vivi.
Bhupesh has to take control of matters as he helps bridge the cultural gap by making Vivi understand that Raina only wanted information that would reveal pragmatic and personal stuff. Everything else was superfluous in this process. Through Vivi’s agreement, Raina finds three suitable men for her, and the subsequent dates are set for Vivi to explore her options. Her whole lifestyle undergoes an overhaul, and Bhupesh takes every chance to make her understand the value of each step. Raina and Bhupesh include Vivi’s parents in the process as well, as Raina’s traditional method wasn’t just a union of two people; it was also a union of two families.
Vivi is intrigued by the whole philosophy and is most influenced by Bhupesh’s attitude toward the business. The way he managed his mother’s finances and dedicated his whole life to Raina’s business really touched her heart. When she got to know that Bhupesh had lost his dad, she really started to see Bhupesh as a strong and responsible man. This was all going on in her subconscious as she was dating the three men under Raina’s watch. She wasn’t aware of Bhupesh’s feelings for her, and the business angle made her hesitant to talk to him about these private emotions, which is why when the match with the third guy, Tristan, is finalized, she stays mum about how she honestly thought about Bhupesh.
‘Make Me A Match’ Ending Explained: Do Bhupesh And Vivi End Up Together?
It wasn’t the case that the feelings were just one-sided. When Bhupesh took Vivi to an Indian wedding, he disclosed to one of his friends that he wanted someone like Vivi in his life. She had all the qualities that he wanted in a partner, but he also knew things could get extremely awkward between them if he revealed his true feelings to her. So, in a classic case of non-communication, both Bhupesh and Vivi start to drift apart. Vivi starts to plan her life with Tristan, and Bhupesh starts to go back into his shell. Raina knew that something was wrong.
Being a mother, Raina knew that ever since his father had died, Bhupesh had a sense of foreboding that if he found love, she would be left all alone. She confronts him one day and relieves him of this guilt by making him understand that what would make her the happiest mother is when Bhupesh stopped his casual affairs and found a meaningful relationship. Vivi, all this while, was trying to make it work with Tristan, but deep down, she knew she had feelings for Bhupesh. Tristan senses this and breaks up with her, and Vivi is left all alone. Raina makes Bhupesh believe he, too, could have love in his life without worrying about his mother all the time, and Bhupesh tries contacting her, but Vivi declines. She tries to focus on her job but finds that her superiors have scrapped all the modifications she had made in the app to adapt Raina’s model. The problem was that the app wanted the users to rejoin, implying they didn’t actually want people to find lifelong partners. She has an epiphany and resigns from the company. She tries contacting Raina about Bhupesh’s whereabouts. At the last moment, before Bhupesh was to leave for India, they both met and confessed their love for each other.
Vivi finally understood that no algorithm could ever solve the problems if they were deeply rooted in her. Seeing her parents quarrel in childhood, she wanted a bulletproof method to not end up like them, but all her efforts had failed. Bhupesh, too, didn’t follow his bliss because he was afraid of hurting her mother. When both of them realize their own shortcomings, they finally get ready to accept love. They end up having a beautiful wedding with the promise to never stand in the way of love again.
