A fun local offering to lift the spirits this holiday season
One of the biggest local hits on the movie circuit in 2017 was Keeping Up With the Kandasamys.
It was a fun-driven escapade about two Chatsworth, Durban, families living next to each other, and their excesses.
Jayan Moodley’s sequel is another fun-filled outing. It explores family issues in a tight Indian community where two people are going to get married, but interfering mothers threaten to scupper the entire event.
It pays homage to mothers who only want the best for their children but, as revealed in this entertaining production, the situation can get ugly.
The two young lovers are the beautiful Jodi (Mishqah Parthiephal) and her doctor boyfriend Preshen (Madhushan Singh), who are next door neighbours and madly in love.
The movie chronicles a week in the lives of the two families as a lead up to the wedding and the various complications that can arise.
Their journey to wedded bliss is marred by the two bickering mothers, Jennifer (Jailoshini Naidoo) and the physically imposing Shanthi (energetically played by Maeshni Naicker), a character who totally dominates her poor son.
Prashen is a true Mommy’s boy. He is reluctant to break the shackles developed over the years, much to the annoyance of Jodi, who feels her fiancée should stand up for himself and be more independent.
There are secrets which only exacerbate the situation as the lovers discover that they don’t know everything about their partners.
The acting is strong and the two key characters have an onscreen chemistry that ignites many of the scenes.
Comic relief is introduced by Jodi’s granny, Aya (Mariam Bassa) who, in a scene in a taxi, mistakes a G-string for “germ string” and wears it as a face mask, much to the amusement of fellow passengers.
The fathers, Elvis (Koobashan Naidoo) and Preggie (Yugan Naidoo), flit around the story’s periphery, biding their time with silly jokes, sipping whisky, playing pool and generally staying out of the way of their busy wives.
Though much of the action is predictable and the narrative follows a set pattern (with enough product placements to make the head spin) director Moodley invests the production with magnificent costumes and jewellery and captures the visual beauty of Durban’s vistas. All in all, Kandasamys: The
Wedding has a lot of good things going for it. It’s easy-on-the-eye and will certainly lift the spirit this holiday season.