A Viral Wedding is streaming on Eros Now.
“India’s lavish weddings go online in virus lockdown,” “Couple ties knot in a virtual wedding,” “Priest on Zoom, borrowed clothes, makeup tutorials: An Indian Covid-19 wedding,” these news headlines made me wonder how these couples would have pulled off an online wedding. Especially when Indian weddings are all about merrymaking for a week, hundreds of guests, music, dance and elaborate feasts. Who knew I would get my answers in a made-at-home web series, A Viral Wedding.
Streaming on Eros Now, the eight-episode series is a perfect example of how ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. It has been shot remotely with no two persons meeting each other. And, the outcome of this shot-at-home web series establishes that we Indians are the ultimate masters of jugaad.
A Viral Wedding is the story of a couple Nisha (Shreya Dhanwanthary) and Rishabh (Amol Parashar) who are planning their special day. On March 24, all their plans go for a toss as PM Modi announces the nationwide lockdown. After the initial panic and calculation of the monetary loss involved, Nisha suggests an online wedding.
What follows are just 7-8 minutes long episodes with a quirky disclaimer, “No humans were harmed in the making of this series.” Here, we get to see the couple’s wedding preparations, from finalising the outfits, dance practice to booking an appointment with a pandit ji, all happening over video calls.
Since, the actors have shot the web series at their homes, with minimal makeup, lights and props, you connect with them instantly. Shreya Dhanwanthary, of The Family Man fame, dons multiple hats as an actor, writer and director of the series. She has refrained from burdening her material with unnecessary details – it’s just one couple, their wedding, and a few ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’. There is no plot or character graph as such. She has constructed it in a way that prompts us to find ourselves in the characters.
Amol Parashar in a still from A Viral Wedding.
For instance, in a scene, Rishabh’s mother suggests to chant ‘Om’ 100 times to kill the virus and he says, “Inke phone se koi whatsapp hatao (someone delete Whatsapp from her phone)”. Nisha’s brother Nishant cribs about his parents not listening to him and believing those Whatsapp forwards. Other such instances are littered throughout the show: cooking to kill time, workout sessions at home, mindless scrolling through social media, emotional breakdown in these trying times. And, all of it strikes a chord.
Coming to acting, Parashar, Sharib Hashmi (the cool priest), Sunny Hinduja (Nisha’s brother Nishant) and Aritro R Banerjee (Rishabh’s friend Imtiyaaz) have delivered the goods.
In the disclaimer, the makers say, “We can’t believe we managed to pull this off.” Well, you not only pulled it off but you pulled it off quite well. A Viral Wedding will surprise you with its ordinary brilliance.