Write a short summary of what happens in the film

The film highlights conversations between three couples who are about to get married. Instead of how their home is going to look or planning the wedding, these intimate chats go to a deeper level of what the ‘marriage’ itself, beyond the wedding will entail for both.  With each couple, the film unpacks brave, progressive conversation that many are too shy or scared to have. There’s a conversation about adoption. One about mental health. Another about a young male professional who wants to give up his well-paying job to bootstrap his own start-up. From the perspective of a largely conservative Indian society, all three conversations are uncomfortable and difficult. The film, however, tries to normalise the inherent discomfort of these topics by keeping the conversations real and authentic.  At its core the film highlights a subtle, but critical, difference: couples need to have the ‘marriage conversation’ before the wedding, not after.

Please tell us about the cultural insight that inspired the work

The Big Fat Indian Wedding is a globally-recognised trope now. And with the focus firmly on the wedding, typically a 3-6 day affair, there is little space for a couple to actually talk about how they want to steer their life together. In the blur of the wedding, conversations about careers and life choices take a backseat, often popping up after the wedding as a disagreeable surprise. Not just ‘arranged marriages’, even in ‘love marriages’ there is a tendency to not talk about the hard stuff. Mental health is taboo for most, adoption comes with its own set of prejudices, and the man giving up breadwinner status challenges patriarchy. These are among the social issues that the film tackles with searingly candid chats between three couples about what they want from marriage. The hope is that beyond the wedding, such honest conversations should form the bedrock of a lifelong commitment.