Is It a Wonderful Afterlife?

I love Gurinder Chadha films. She of the Bend it Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice fame. It was therefore a no brainer that I had to watch her latest film, "It's A Wonderful Afterlife". What's the film about?



In short, Indian parents and their quest to marry their children. Something that I'm familiar with since some of closest friends are Indian. In this case, we have Roopi. She's a regular girl, doing great work and not in a rush to marry. But her mother, will not rest (in more ways than one) until Roopi marries. I see how great Roopi is but to her suitors parents, they only see her as fat and unattractive. This really hurts her mother (and me!). So as not to give the story away, I'll get to a thought I had. I know that that there's a huge pressure for my Indian girlfriends to be married. One is in her mid-twenties but she's already considered an old maid. I find her beautiful externally and internally.

Like Roopi, my girlfriend loves her job, she is independent yet respects traditional customs and her parents wishes. But how do reconcile your independent self with an arranged marriage? Especially one where you do not have the luxury to date for a year or two before marriage. Is this why Roopi has a hard time when she meets her potential husband? Although time was of the essence for Roopi, a fact she was not aware of until the end, she was able to date her guy for sometime. Is this better for the couple? On a last note, although Roopi's weight was an issue to seemingly everyone (mind you, she didn't look bigger than a size 12), her eventual boyfriend, played by the HAWT Sendhil Ramamurthy of Heroes, did not even seem to notice. This only seems to happen in the movies but I digress. Sis?