When a slew of Indian Matchmaking shows were eating up social media timelines, two best friends Tara Khanna and Karan Mehra showed up on Amazon Prime Video and hit the ball out of the park with Made In Heaven. This show, created by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, told us stories of fairy tale weddings of people who camouflage their broken parts in caviar and champagne. You will fall in love with the setting in every story, and even more with the people whose stories are being told.
The weddings shown are so picture perfect, you will hide your own wedding album (not to mention the gawdawful cheesy videos of people eating, odd heart shaped frames added to your ‘couple’ picture, and yes, even hand colouring the negatives of the reception because you were ‘not wearing enough makeup’ to ‘look like a bride’). While you will sigh over the exquisite weddings you will see, you will sniffle through the stories because they will sear your heart. But then with every story comes a lesson about money and your relationship with money.
Champagne mein Rooh Afza daal doon?
Made In Heaven, the wedding planners for the super-rich are having an existential crisis. They are not making a profit and their silent partner Mr. Jauhari has brought in his wife Mrs. Bulbul Jauhari to fix the accounts. Her salwar-kameez wearing avatar is very different from the women (and the lads) who work there. But they have no choice and are aghast when she begins to offer cost-cutting choices: mix plastic flowers with real ones…
"We can’t do this to our clients,” says Tara when Bulbul-ji orders regular champagne instead of the more expensive pink. Jaspreet aka Jazz suggests, ‘Should I add Rooh Afza to the regular champagne?’ Tara and others just roll their eyes…
When it comes to your money, it’s good to be like Bulbul-ji, knowing that you need to care about your spending so that you profit more. But would you add plastic flowers in a big bouquet of flowers hoping nobody would notice? If you add Rooh Afza to champagne wouldn't it be a sham, a pain? What would you do if someone suggested that you invest in dodgy companies? Those in the know, know. Whether it is regular champagne spiked by Rooh Afza or shady companies asking you to invest your hard-earned money.
ALSO READ: Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani: 6 money lessons you can learn from KJo film
Auzaar par dhyaan nahi, kaam par dhyaan deejiye
“A bad workman blames his tools," says Mr. Jauhari when Tara and Karan blame their lack of opportunities for getting big weddings in their kitty. It’s not the setting that you are running the company from that should matter, it’s your work.
Tara has a point too when she says that chances for big weddings cannot walk into the office that’s located in the middle of what looks like a crowded bazaar. ‘Their cars won’t have space to enter these alleys,’ Tara adds sarcastically.
Now both have a great point to make for us. You must focus on the work rather than the tools, and location of your business does matter. In your money life, you know that you cannot blame your computer or the software you use if you miss out on that dividend stock, or did not sell a share on time. Location does matter if you wish to create an impression on your customers/clients, but in the end what you do is what matters.
How far will you go to please people?
The bride who takes expensive skin lightening treatments to please her family, another who hides abuse from the groom; a rich family that assumes their son will go abroad to study at a fancy college and give up his career here in India; a mother who misses out on her daughter’s life because she cannot even think of defying her husband’s wishes; college sweethearts that gave up love because their families wouldn’t hear of it.
Made In Heaven shows you what so many of us live in our everyday lives. We have been conditioned to put others first, and that means we end up unhappy. Now imagine if you were forced to invest your hard-earned money because family elders liked the logo of the company or some such thing, would you? You must explain your reasons to not agree to such demands, isn’t it? In the show when Jaspreet aka Jazz stands in front of her parents and tells them that she will not forget her duty to take care of them even if she were married, so don’t hide the‘rishtas’ (proposals of marriage) coming their way. It’s your money, people can give all the advice they can, but it should be your decision that will make or break you.
Stand up and be counted
In one of the episodes of Made In Heaven, there’s a wife who has to stand and watch her husband get ready to marry a second time, because their religion allows it. Clearly the new bride (and her mother and sister) has a hidden agenda. The bride’s hair is as fake as the love she professes to the man. But the man is blinded by all that love being showered on him by a younger ‘Goldilocks’. Thanks to Karan who rescues the first wife from a suicide attempt, we learn a valuable lesson.
We must stand up for ourselves. Imagine working for a company where you are not valued. You helped build the company, but younger people got ahead simply because their flashy presence blinded the bosses. Sometimes being the salt of the Earth even in your investing life does not reap the rewards that you deserve. Take that leap of faith and make your money work better for you.
Protect your assets, no matter what love asks of you
Adhira, a supermodel is about to get married to Anik, an intensely jealous and abusive motivational speaker. But no one aside from her knows how much she’s suffering, because everything can be covered up with makeup. But when he kicks her in the face, she decides to break off the wedding. After all, she can take being isolated from her friends and family (he buys her a home far away from the city), she can even be forced to commute to work, but her face is her asset!
When two Bollywood stars are about to be married, the bride Leila – a bigger star – learns that Sarfaraz, her groom, is trying to undercut her from a prospective role by lying; she has to take charge. Is marriage going to ruin her ‘saleability’ as a star? Bollywood is harsh to married female stars. The reasons given are simple to the point of stupidity: fans don’t fantasise about married stars; fans don’t want to see their dream gal as a mother and so on. But we smile as Leila turns the table on Sarfaraz and manages to make a killing!
When you’re investing, you are bound to see ups and downs in the market. Many times, you keep quiet and are unable to take action and suffer for it. But there will come a time when you will have to take steps to protect your assets. Insure yourself against the downturns, have a plan B. Leila understands her future with a movie star like Sarfaraz. She knows male stars last longer in Bollywood. So, she unleashes her Plan B and comes out her winner. She protects her assets, and wins.
Why do you want her house?
All marriages are not made in heaven. Tara organises beautiful weddings, but her own marriage is falling apart. On the surface, it’s all very polite with her husband Adil Khanna who shares a divorce lawyer with her. Even her mother-in-law wants Tara to comfort her when the father-in-law dies. But Tara notices that her marital home that she had to leave because her husband had an affair, is being renovated to add a baby room for the baby that her husband’s girlfriend is going to have. Tara realises that everyone is just paying her lip service and that they’ve all moved on. She’s lost more than just her friends but her family too. She decides to contest the divorce.
Sometimes, people take advantage of your innate decency. And you end up paying a huge price. In a totally unrelated film (Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani) there is a similar lesson:Itne bhi meethe na bano ki log tumhe kha jaayein. It just means don’t be such a pushover in your life that you let other people decide your worth. Many people will be surprised to see you make aggressive decisions about your investments, you will hear, ‘How could you?’ from many people. Just as everyone asks Tara how she could ask for the house and give up shares in the company. But just like Tara, you stick to acting on what is right for you. Tara knows that the Khannas built that home. By getting that home, her revenge for the many betrayals is complete. In real life, things may not be as dramatic as a show. But you choose what is right for you. The rest will follow.
Manisha Lakhe is a poet, film critic, traveller, founder of Caferati — an online writer’s forum, hosts Mumbai’s oldest open mic, and teaches advertising, films and communication. She can be reached on Twitter at @manishalakhe.
