Hi Preeti Aunty,
I really hope your BP is not high while you're reading this because you wouldn't be able to make it to the end of this letter. So, yeah, please make sure that you're in the pink of your health while going through this (if you ever do for that matter!)
You played a crucial role in the second have of Netflix's most popular show (for reasons unknown) 'Indian Matchmaking'. And I must say that as Akshay's mother, you did a pretty good job by forcing your kid to select some girl and marry her in a matter of 3 months. Why could he not? After all, that's how marriages are supposed to work, right?
Keeping all my biases aside, the fact that I'm entirely against the concept of marriage, one that ties a woman, her free will and her fate with that of a man and HIS family, I feel this show very rightly depicts the Indian culture of matchmaking and in-turn marriages.
Let's come back to Preeti Aunty who would always have her BP high because her son wasn't getting married at the right/ripe age of 25. She has two sons. The elder of the two is married happily with a woman who fits her (Preeti Aunty's) criteria. The other, Akshay, is having trouble finding a girl he'd like to settle down with, which is either because he does not find them pretty or attractive (mentioned frequently in the show) or because the girl does not match his requirements.
But where Preeti Aunty should have played the side role, she instead is on the forefront. And is QUITE active when it comes to listing down the qualities that her son would like to have in his future wife.
Just out of curiosity, Aunty, are you looking for a wife for yourself? (We are all pro LGBTQ now!)
Anyway, she keeps pestering her son to decide a girl soon, embarrassing him in front of his entire family (a joint family that is) and even threatens him by the end of the 6th episode, saying that she'll get him married to a girl of her choice if he fails to select any.
Weren't you already doing that Aunty?
But this is not all. During the course of the show, she expresses her concerns, more often than what's required of her, about the girl that she'd like to have as her daughter-in-law. Family-oriented, should have traditional values, should be ready to join a joint family, should listen and work in accordance with what she (Preeti Aunty) says, are a few norms that the would-be girl will have to follow.
So, yeah, the show is pretty fucked up! And this is only one person and one storyline that I'm talking of. There are numerous places in the show where Sima Aunty, the matchmaker, demeans women and men. She is quite open about her views of the candidates she meets during the course of the interview and even shares them on-screen. If you haven't watched the show, here a few sentences and phrases she uses frequently: fickle-minded, I don't like the way she talks, her attitude is not nice, is rude, very adamant he/she is, needs to adjust, marriage is all about compromise, the girl is not pretty, etc.
And these aren't all.
I won't even get into the details of Geeta (the Delhi-based matchmaker) who is supposedly more modern.
In short, this show very clearly depicts our society's obsession with marriage, the need for women and men to 'settle-down' and how the ones who don't oblige, face the wrath of the society. It is an amalgamation of cringe-worthy dialogues, snobbish aunties, misogynist men and an obnoxious matchmaker who blatantly applauds the concept of patriarchy.
PS: I haven't watched beyond Episode 6.
Sincerely,
A disgusted viewer
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