Made in Heaven Season 2 digs out truths buried in Gucci bags as Arjun Mathur, Mona Singh shine

Starring: Shobhita Dhulipala, Arjun Mathur, Jim Sarbh, Kalki Koechlin, Shashank Arora, Mona Singh, Trinetra Haldar, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Vijay Raaz.

In India, the union of two souls is written in the stars. But in Delhi’s upscale neighbourhoods, it is decided on the colour of the skin, overlooking jilted love, and even domestic abuse.

Like the first season, Season 2 of Made in Heaven doesn’t hold back from showing a mirror to the Indian society whose age-old beliefs tend to burst at the seams when a wedding is involved. It doesn’t matter whether one is rich or think of themselves as socially progressive living in the 21st century, all gloves are off when it’s about ‘what people will say’.

The Amazon Prime Video series couldn’t have come any sooner. It has been a four-year wait for the second season and it doesn’t disappoint at all. The series picks up where it left off, with broken hearts, confused lovers, lies, and deception.

Weaved together beautifully by videographer Kabir’s (Shashank Arora) narration, the series pans in on the complex lives of people who can’t hide behind Sabyasachi lehengas or get lost in the vast lawns of Mughal Delhi.

With five directors at the helm—Reema Kagti, Zoya Akhtar, Neeraj Ghawayan, Alankrita Shrivastava, and Nitya Mehra—Made in Heaven’s second season goes far beyond the first and how. It’s not just the production which has got a massive upgrade—with the rich even richer and the weddings even fancier—the ethos itself has climbed a notch higher too.

The show is unabashedly progressive, touching up on affirmative action, gender identity, feminism, polygamy, same-sex marriage, and Stockholm syndrome.

However, the series wouldn’t go anywhere without the actors.

Arjun Mathur as Karan takes us to the second act as the wedding planner who gets into trouble a little too frequently, and intently. He is rejected for being proudly gay and rather than process his emotions, finds solace in a dark place, a familiar territory for those of us who are made to feel ashamed by our families. But that’s also his Achilles’ heel.

Shobita Dhulipala (Tara), who is his partner in crime, behaves a little like a criminal herself. Having climbed the social ladder, the stakes are too high and Dhulipala conveys the gluttony with nuanced perfection.

All the actors take the characters into their own orbits. Whether it’s Shivani Raghuvanshi’s overflowing Dilliwalla personality, Arora being the fly on the wall, Jim Sarbh being a man-child with a lot to lose, or Kalki Koechlin stuck between two worlds.

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But it’s the new entrants who make every scene their own.

Mona Singh entered the baarat as the sceptical auditor (Bulbul Jauhari) looking a little out of place but didn’t take long to put her foot in as an independent woman, a feminist, and a concerned mother.

Trinetra Haldar’s (Mehr) casting is by far the most unique. Not playing the token transwoman, Trinetra delivers as a woman who finally feels her own, but the world is unable to look beyond her physicality. The air shifted a little when Mehr gave back to people using her dead name.

The dead name is the birth name of a transgender person who has dropped it and adopted a new name as part of their gender transition.

The writing and dialogues are well thought out and don’t fall out of place or sync too often—something the first season struggled with in some places. The cinematography falls in line with the wedding theme and only makes the clothes even more expensive.

Made in Heaven tells the truth but doesn’t preach. It reflects our society’s harsh realities that often only people who come from a place of privilege can afford to live. And often, even they can’t be unaffected by how others will talk.

The show is not a tangle of the rich’s whims, but who can say no to some pink champagne?

Rating: 4.5/5