The year 2024 became the year of gawking. Never before in the history of India have people sat down on their phones and watched reel by reel of The Great Indian Wedding. The country’s collective concentration on the Ambani wedding, the festivities between Mukesh Ambani’s son Anant and Mumbai girl Radhika Merchant, almost reminds us of India sitting down, ear to the radio, listening to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘Freedom at Midnight’ speech.
So attentive we were, absolutely dumbfounded at how much dough-to-dazzle was at hand in India. The nearly six-month-long festivities began pre-wedding in January with a galaxy of Bollywood movie stars packed in what looked like a picnic bus. Rihanna performed on stage wearing a parrot-coloured Manish Malhotra (and that wasn’t her only faux pas) and Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates wore kurtas.
Then a European Cruise party where Katy Perry danced and an Italian village was trashed. And finally, a weekend of festivities where Justin Bieber turned private dancer, Kim Kardashian shot for her reality show and more global leaders showed up than at the United Nations. The razzle-dazzle of film stars was such that all the awards functions decided to stay put this year, none could outnumber the celebrity attendance.
Heck, even Bollywood decided to take a gap year and churned out mediocre film after shoddy film. The few watchable films could be counted on one hand. I personally loved Amar Singh Chamkila as much for Diljit Dosanjh as for Imt.
