Ali's Wedding - A Netflix Original True Muslim Romantic Comedy

Here's my review of a new Netflix-Original Movie called "Ali's Wedding" I saw last night.

Storyline

The story is of an Iraqi family who fled from Iraq to Australia in times of crisis. Years later, their life in Australia seems content - two brothers and a younger sister living with their parents as a typical Muslim family. Ali, the eldest, is preparing for his medical exams, as is the girl he loves, Dianne. When Ali didn't even get close to getting into Melbourne University while his opponent did, he lied about his score - only so he could pretend to win the race. Poor Ali never really did though, as everyone knows, such lies have a tendency to catch up with you. He started going to the college everyday just so that he could fool his parents for a year and retake the exams next year. Dianne helped him out because Ali had previously talked to her father about letting her go to college to become a successful doctor that can take care of him. What a sweetheart! And so began their love journey - but you cant really have romantic movie without a third wheel now, can you? Ali's parents find him the most perfect bride Yomna, and Ali being the idiot that he was, drank the marriage acceptance tea and agreed to marry her all the while dating Dianne. Here's when the movie stops feeling like a comedy - and more like a struggle for true love. Eventually, everyone gets caught up Ali's lies and his affair - and they marry him off to Yomna by force. He runs away, OBVIOUSLY, but only to find that Yomna's father has already shipped her off to home country. He apologizes to his father for his mistakes and his father, the priest, in return forgives him for not being the perfect son. Our Romeo waits forever for his love to return, and then one day she does. The end - happily ever after!!!

Highlights

Being a Muslim myself, I was more than intrigued to watch a Muslim production by Netflix. Judging from the trailer, it gave a romance-comedy vibe - however, if you check the genre defined by Netflix itself, it doesn't quite fit in that. Maybe because not all of it was that funny - some of it was mainly Muslim culture and the time-old traditions that we follow still today.

• • Landmine Explosion: My mind froze at the scene of Ali's elder brother sacrificing his life on a landmine and all the while saving his younger brother. He didn't stop for a second to think if there was another option - or just ponder about life. All he cared about was getting Ali as far away as he could so that he wouldn't be near the explosion. Ali definitely suffered from childhood trauma - which would explain his devoted obedience to his parents. Since this is a true story, I imagine how painful it must have been in real life. I wonder if the conditions in Iraq are just as bad today - that kids have to be brave enough to take such heroic actions in order to protect one another.
  • Medical Exam Results: Okay, so becoming a doctor is a pretty big deal in Pakistan - but I thought it was just in Pakistan. Apparently, Muslims everywhere want their children to practice medicine because it is the most rewarding job ever. Same was the case with Ali. His parents made him give the medical exam which he was obviously incompetent to succeed in. I really enjoyed the rivalry and jealousy between him and his cousin - the victorious look on his face lying about his marks in the exam said it all. The way his family celebrated his success was also quite entertaining. I really appreciated the display of Muslim traditions like sacrificing thirty goats and spilling water on the floor to rid the evil eye. Lol, I'm not sure if these rituals ever work - but they're really funny to observe among Muslims around the world.
  • Saddam Hussain Theatre: I loved how the theatrical play turned out. Normally Muslims don't sing or perform - especially not atrocities and villainy. But the performance showed a positive side of all the Mullahs - how they were good actors and generally entertaining people.
  • Halal Romantic Interactions: Didn't you find the little interactions between Ali and Dianne just ADORABLE? They are the cutest! Way to go on their efforts to keep their relationship as halal as possible. I'm not so sure about kissing - but other than that, their tiny little wedding, them eating popcorn together and studying medicine: too much cuteness. I think that even most American romantic movies don't focus on these tiny details anymore - and it was just really nice to see that on T.V. again. Had me giggling...
  • Marraige Proposal Tea: Okay so another All-Muslim tradition in arranged marriages is that the girl to be married brings tea to her man - and if he drinks it and likes it - then the marriage is agreed upon between both families. It was hilarious to watch Ali struggle with the tea - putting spoon after spoon after spoon of sugar into it until finally there was nothing left to do but drink it. Poor Ali - I almost feel bad.
  • Iraqi Muslim Marraige: Even though the wedding of Ali and Yomna didn't turn out perfectly as planned, It was nice to see an actual Iraqi wedding - the bride wore a white embroidered gown with hijab and the groom wore a nice black tux with a red tie. While generally, Muslim wedding dresses differ from country to country - the part where the groom drives away with his wife on a brand new car still remains the same. Other than Ali running away screaming on a tractor afterward, this was definitely a perfect wedding with the most gorgeous bride ever!
  • Interesting Cast Members: The rest of the cast and scenes in the movie were great too - the Australian younger brother who cursed all the time and had a tattoo even though his father's a Mullah, the old dude with three wives in complete Burqa who kept singing and dancing, the other Mullah who wore the Black Turban for five minutes and got drunk with power, all the actors and the script as well as the production was quite good. Thumbs up, Y'all!

Recommendations

A few down points that I didn't mention above are that throughout most of the movie, they're kinda showing Iraqis or Muslims in general as these singing rhyming people who are usually clueless and act foolishly. That's not true - even in a comedy show, they shouldn't go to such extremes to broadcast racial stupidity as funny. Second, they didn't show any liberal Muslims in the movie - just to counteract all the negative restrictions this one conservative group of Muslims followed. Not everyone nowadays is like that - and no one really minds it either. Everyone in Islam has the right to practice religion in their own way and nowadays they usually do. So dating isn't as big an issue as displayed in this movie. I guess my recommendation for a second part or for a similar production would be to just keep these points in mind. Overall, it was a good movie and I definitely enjoyed the romance and comedy employed! Nice Work, Netflix!

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