A comedy centered on an Indian mother who takes her obsession with marriage into the world of serial murder

It set me thinking as reel after reel of Gurinder Chadha's IT'S A WONDERFUL AFTERLIFE unspooled. We [the Bollywood reviewers/critics] are extremely harsh on films produced on hometurf. We go hammer and tongs after these film-makers, as if they have committed a crime that they cannot be absolved of. We tend to ridicule films, its makers, the actors in those films… in fact, just about everyone associated with those films.

How about using the same yardstick for movies attempted by names that command tremendous respect in the West? We forgive them, most of the times. We even turn a blind eye, ignoring the deficiencies only because the West holds them in high esteem. The thought crosses our mind pretty often: Wouldn't we come across as complete nincompoops if we ridiculed them, even if they turn up with pure trash?


Mrs. Sethi doesn't feel too guilty until the spirits of her victims come back to haunt her, as they are unable to be reincarnated until their murderer dies. Mrs. Sethi has no problem killing herself -- she'll get to see her dead husband again -- but how can she go before her daughter is married? The spirits realize that helping Mrs. Sethi find a suitable husband for her daughter, before the police catch her, is their only chance for a wonderful afterlife.

On paper, perhaps, the story of IT'S A WONDERFUL AFTERLIFE may sound tempting and alluring. At least I found it attention-grabbing when I first heard it, several weeks ago. But sitting through those 1.40 hours of this cinematic journey is an ordeal. Seriously, what were writers Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges thinking when they wrote the screenplay? Barely a few minutes into the film, you realize that Chadha has lost the plot already.