CAST: Karan Soni, Geraldine Viswanathan
DIRECTOR: ROSHAN SETHI
Roshan Sethi’s “7 Days” is a story of mama’s boy Ravi (Karan Soni) and the rebel brown girl Rita (Geraldine Viswanathan), two Indian-American twentysomethings being pushed into an arranged marriage scenario by the plotting mothers. And the day they meet, they are stuck with each other shelter-in-place takes effect right in the middle of their awkward first meeting
Ravi took Rita to a reservoir with no water for their first arranged marriage meeting and serves even a duller banter.
As he misses the train, he is stuck in her cluttered apartment place, sleeping on her couch, and starts discovering that she is not who she said she was. First off, he is shocked at the sight of her vibrator on the bathroom sink. Barely recovering from this, he catches her “come to daddy” conversation with her boyfriend. He needs no more shocks as he discovers that the traditional Indian Rita, he thought she was a meat eating, beer drinking, opiniated girl with a lot more going for her than the fangs of arranged marriage. Disquieting for his idea of a traditional Indian life partner, he had envisaged for himself.
As he sits in this realization, he is stuck in a confined space with her as the pandemic forces them to spend time with each other.
The movie is a typical two-hander, and it is such fun to watch these two actors make the most of the situation.
Viswanathan has excellent comic timing, and her funny one-liners steal the show as she projects her laid-back self on the screen space she has.
Soni is intense and effective in designing the mama’s boy with narrow-minded thinking with ease.
The movie is also a platform for Soni, who also co-wrote the film with director Sethi.
Soni’s Ravi is pathetic in parts. But he is comical, calm, subtle and sometimes ingratiating all the way through, intentionally making jokes about his character’s obsessions or traditional addictions while portraying how someone can be open to new encounters and viewpoints. It creeps into the story when he starts to dispassionately view things from Rita’s perspective as they live together.
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“7 Days” has an inclusive appeal that keeps it mesmerizing for its 85-minute runtime, with an agile clasp on the direction that ensures the closed space scenes have a flavor of their own in their pace when they occur
When Ravi and Rita meet for the first time, Ravi is predisposed to like whoever he meets in a bid to get his family and marriage pressure off his chest. However, he soon realizes that everything he thought Rita was, she was the opposite. As they are sheltering place together, they realize how different they were, yet how each other’s perspectives gave them space to grow their personalities.
The director smartly bookends the movie with testimonials from real-life married Indian couples who met through arranged marriages, and speak about their experiences.
“7 Days” does become an endearing one-time watch on your list. Though not as magnificent as other COVID cinema, it is still a feat getting so much out of two actors in a room.
The movie was shot at Rancho Remuda, a 30-acre working horse property where Thoroughbred horses are raised and trained. It is the oldest ranch in the Coachella Valley, built in 1902, and was once owned by Cary Grant. It was a weekend getaway for many of Hollywood actors like Clark Gable and Greta Garbo’ they would all gather and swim in the artesian well-fed reservoir.
