This article contains major spoilers for the Meenakshi Sundareshwar ending.
A torpid, brutally overlong romantic drama, Meenakshi Sundareshwar is built on one essential question: Is arranged marriage a good idea? In the corner of “yes” are the titular Sundareshwar and Meenakshi, a young couple brought together through no real input of their own who’re forced to fight for their marriage when their relationship becomes long-distance and, frankly, quite bizarre. There’s no real, compelling argument against the idea except, of course, for the film itself.
The reason this marriage becomes bizarre is that Sundareshwar takes a job opportunity in distant Bangalore that mandates applicants are single, so has to pose as a bachelor while living on the other side of the country, which Meenakshi is supposed to just blithely accept because they’re married. It takes all two hours and twenty minutes of the film for Sundareshwar to realize that making his wife pose as his cousin on the few occasions she’s allowed to see him is kind of a dick move. By that time, a right-minded viewer will have given up on the film, and thus their relationship, completely.
The means by which Sundareshwar comes to realize this are pretty ridiculous. He spends most of the film trying to be a company man, driving his own wife away in the process, while Meenakshi has little to do other than spend time with an old flame and bicker with Sundareshwar’s parents. Their marriage eventually becomes strained and joyless, and both are wondering why they’re still bothering. It all comes to a head when one of Sundareshwar’s jealous work rivals sets him up, luring Meenakshi to the company so that Sundareshwar can be publicly outed as being married in front of the boss. This comes right before Sundareshwar is due to give a company-wide presentation on his idea for an app, and here’s where things get pretty laughable.
Meenakshi Sundareshwar ending
Sundareshwar’s app idea is this: It monitors someone’s mood by taking account of their conversations and emoji usage and such, and then gives someone else a heads-up about how they’re feeling so that they can decide how to approach them. It’s such a hilariously invasive idea for an app that I thought the film might be making a joke, until Sundareshwar, during his presentation, announced that he had designed the app to allow him to better understand his wife, and then I realized that the film kind of is a joke, like in and of itself. Nevertheless, Sundareshwar leaves the company and goes to find his wife, who’s dancing and singing at the movies. The scene in which he watches her enjoying herself from a distance went on so long that I began to suspect that, too, was a joke, but no. It’s actually intended as the emotional crux of the entire story.
The fact that Meenakshi was ever okay with any of this is puzzling; that she’s so willing to just accept Sundareshwar’s claims of loving her despite him having spent the whole film acting like he doesn’t is more confusing still. Either way, it’s a predictable and silly end to what rather seems like a colossal waste of everyone’s time.
You can stream Meenakshi Sundareshwar exclusively on Netflix. If you have thoughts on the Meenakshi Sundareshwar ending, let us know in the comments.
