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It’s been four years since Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti’s sophisticated hit drama about Delhi-based wedding planners dropped on Prime Video, and fans have been chomping at the bit for a new season in its absence. After a long hiatus, the series returns with nine new episodes on August 10. Is the buzz around its return warranted?
MADE IN HEAVEN SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Six months after the end of Season 1, Tara and Karan are show-running a wedding that employs Russian women dressed provocatively, likely strippers or sex workers; work has dried up since Tara’s cheating husband was exposed and Karan’s sexuality became public.
The Gist: Karan (Arjun Mathur) and Tara (Sobhita Dhulipala) are the owners of “Made in Heaven,” a startup Delhi-based wedding planning service that caters to a bride and groom’s every request. Through both the lavish ceremonies and the characters’ main lives (Tara married into a higher class family but discovered her husband was cheating on her with her best friend; Karan is gay—a fact that his mom can’t accept), Made in Heaven examines how conservative traditions bump up against modern inclinations in today’s India.
The first season concluded with Tara and Karan’s secrets exposed and their business in trouble; the second opens with them taking any job they can book, no matter how unsavory. Their team is also hemorrhaging—their production lead Shibani (Natasha Singh) quit, the house videographer Kabir (Shashank Arora) is considering pursuing a Master’s degree at NYU while also trying to sell his documentary, and their office has relocated to a hard-to-find apartment owned by their new money-minded co-owner Jauhari (Vijay Raaz). Their personal lives aren’t much better: Tara’s mom pushes her to ask for more money in the divorce settlement after Adil’s (Jim Sarbh) father passes, while Karan’s mom won’t even speak to him.
By the episode’s end, though, they’re both finding euphoria in different ways: they pull off a complicated wedding by prioritizing the bride and groom’s wishes over the parents’, Tara meets a new lover named Raghav, and Karan acquaints himself with cocaine—something that will surely become an issue throughout the season.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? It might be easy to use Indian Matchmaking as a comp just based on the marriage-based premise, but Made in Heaven is much closer to a serialized drama like Grey’s Anatomy where each episode focuses on an “issue.” Keep in mind, though, that Made in Heaven is much darker and more concise than any network drama.
Our Take: When Made in Heaven premiered in 2019, it was an instant hit. The series from Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti felt modern in a way that many other dramas from the subcontinent hadn’t before: its characters were allowed to live in the gray areas of morality, be multifaceted and occasionally unlikeable, and live life according to globalized standards versus the conservative lens of traditional Indian culture.
Season 2 only builds upon the strengths of season one, with each episode tackling taboos in Desi culture by setting it against the backdrop of one of South Asia’s biggest entertainment exports: weddings. But this isn’t your typical Desi wedding show; the setting is only a vehicle for larger conversations. The central wedding in the premiere delves deep into colorism as a bride uses skin-lightening creams and treatments before her wedding day (past episodes have tackled abortion, extramarital affairs, horoscope matching, divorce, and more).
Occasionally the execution of these “big issue” moments can come across as slightly preachy, but the writing is mostly succinct and clever with realistic portrayals of relevant issues in the community. When compared to India’s other big export, Bollywood, Made in Heaven is much clearer and in touch with reality in its depiction of taboo topics like homosexuality, adultery, body shaming, and more. It’s exciting to see a mainstream drama shed light on these issues at all, but it’s more rewarding knowing that they’re doing it properly.
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Aside from writing, the show’s biggest assets are its actors. The entire cast is cohesive, anchored by star-making performances from Dhulipala and Mathur, both of whom are dedicated to the murky undercurrents of their characters while also imbuing them with hope and lightness. New characters are introduced—like Mona Singh’s Bulbul Jauhari, a detail-oriented auditor—and immediately have chemistry with the main cast.
After a four-year hiatus largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s great to have the progressive, expertly plotted Made in Heaven back on our screens for another season. It’s even greater to report that the season lives up to the high expectations.
Sex and Skin: There is a sexually tinged scene at the end of the premiere, but nothing explicit. However, knowing this show, that will likely change throughout the second season.
Parting Shot: After a particularly tense conversation with his mom, Karan heads to a gay club. He makes out with a stranger who offers him a bump of coke; he obliges and looks momentarily euphoric.
Sleeper Star: While Dhulipala and Mathur remain at the top of their game, more screen time is afforded to the flirty friendship between Jazz and Kabir, played by Shivani Raghuvanshi and Shashank Arora, respectively. Raghuvanshi has perfected the innocent-though-cunning facade of Jazz while Arora’s facial expressions convey every one of Kabir’s emotions.
Most Pilot-y Line: “If they want this novelty, we’ll oblige,” Tara says dryly about the sex worker-filled wedding that opens the season, an indication of just how far the Made in Heaven crew will go to get their bag.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Made in Heaven continues to be exceptionally written, acted, and directed while also being a vehicle for progressive ideas in Indian society.
Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a TV-obsessed writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared on Vulture, Teen Vogue, Paste Magazine, and more. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.
