Indian Matchmaking: Why Netflix's new show on arranged marriages has kicked up controversy

Netflix show Indian Matchmaking is a desi reality that is evenly wedged between horror and rom-com. It follows a series of bachelors, bachelorettes and divorcees, living in the US and India who have been mollycoddled into choosing a partner by their families with the help of an Indian matchmaker.

Twitter has come down heavily with reactions to the show — some furious about the cringeworthy moments and the judgemental, haphazard dialogues carelessly littered throughout the show. In one such instance, Sima Taparia the matchmaker in question looks square in the eyes of a divorced woman and tells her 'because of your situation your options are limited, you have to adjust with what you get' and other such visibly scarring moments.

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What is the controversy around Indian Matchmaking?

The dating/matchmaking series has been described as a tool that glorifies and reinforces malicious stereotypes. The show which comes across as the Indian version of  Love is Blind not only lacks any depth but also endorses and whitewash archaic ideas and notions of arranged marriages.

Viewers are calling it a depiction of everything people hate about Indian culture, one viewer tweeted:

“It’s everything about Indian culture I hate and I’m so glad I stood up for myself to be with someone outside of that culture and who loves me FOR ME and not just cause I’m ‘successful or pretty’.”

And then there were other viewers who weighed in with their own thoughts, often in angst and disappointment at Netflix for entertaining such ideas, let alone giving them a whole show.

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Viewers have called the show a "big fat desi wedding stereotype" that rich Indians fantasise over and talk about in kitty parties with their friends. 

Chronicling the theatrics of Indian families who vie for arranged marriages and create a lot of unnecessary havoc over weddings, the part-documentary, part-reality TV series follows a high-profile matchmaker and her clients in their journey to find the "perfect partner", with the help of astrologers and families' blessings, of course.

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The eight-episode show is deeply steeped in decades of misogyny and casual sexism. 

"Matches are made in Heaven"

"God has given me the job to make it successful on Earth"

"You are tall, fair, slim amd trim, you will get a great guy" 

"My efforts are meaningless if the stars are not aligned" are just some of the colourful lines quoted by Sima Taparia.

Critics and viewers alike are fuming over the inaccurate, if not, downright horrible portrayal of the youth in the country, claiming that better results would have reflected on screen, had they actually spoken to a cross-section of Indian youth. Slamming it as "regressive" and advocating unrealistic agendas, the show is touted now as perpetuating the "aunty-gaze" and pushing marriages as the only option that will complete a woman's life.

Indian Matchmaking which premiered on July 16, has already earned the wrath of netizens on social media, especially since it was promoted as a show that helps single millennials "find true love".

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