So read the headline in the Print

 

However, the way this can happen is not by the changed expressions visible in celebrity wedding photo shoots but rather changed dynamics between the genders. There are a lot of useful and urgent interventions that can shatter misogynistic stereotypes; changing the format of bridal photo shoots to include wider, more ecstatic, grins is not one of them. In the case of Padukone and Singh’s wedding, this came in the form of writer Taslima Nasrin’s feminist take. One unpopular suggestion would be to refuse to have the lavish celebrations that are duly aped by millions more, to speak publicly of the “equal” marriage that they intend to have, the deeper feminist commitments that they hope to adhere to. She may have been having a feminist moment while laughing on the mehndi boat on Lake Como, but for the Indian press she remained the icon of wifely devotion China Rear Bumper Assembly Manufacturers — feminism be damned. In laughing heartily, the actor was destroying the pre-feminist stereotype of the bashful bride, who must look sedate and submissive while all those around her engage in wild celebrations. Chopra, who has been starring in the American television show Quantico, met Jonas whilst in the United States.The curly-moustache sporting groom, Ranveer Singh, is resting on cushions next to Padukone.

This one had the added twist of not only being a celebrity wedding, but a celebrity wedding of a bride and groom from opposite corners of the earth.The sarcasm is not misplaced here.Deepika Padukone’s hearty laughter at her wedding has shattered an age-old culture. While she has in the main and when suited to her career espoused feminist values, she chose to give up her maiden name Padukone and will henceforth go by Singh. In the picture in question, Deepika Padukone, seated on a boat somewhere in the Italian region of Lake Como, is laughing wildly while her outstretched hands, resting on pillows, are covered with mehndi. This particular photograph was taken as part of the couple’s “secret” wedding ceremony, to be followed by Konkani and Sindhi ceremonies in India.Once the many rounds of Padukone’s wedding were over, it was time for Priyanka Chopra’s wedding to Nick Jonas.The rampant plastic surgery and eating disorders prevalent in Bollywood, not to mention the staple song and dance numbers that treat women little better than puppets, are all far more real and frequent sustainers of the very patriarchal and gendered ideas that perpetuate male dominance. In the images appeared a somewhat bizarre and unforeseen coincidence; the same hearty laughter with the bride and groom posing in a boat, appearing incredibly amused at the unsaid joke. It all begins with laughing a lot and within the range of photographers at one’s wedding.It happened this weekend and Nick Jonas himself was the one to release the first batch of pictures.

There is a lot that celebrities can do to make this happen. This, in the writer’s view, was just the beginning; heartily laughing brides could spell the beginning of the end of patriarchy itself, of marital rape and arranged marriages and financial dependency to wit. In her view, Padukone’s over-the-top ebullience in the wedding pictures (the “hearty laughter” recurs in several more shots) was nothing simple, but something iconic. Brides will laugh heartily and longer when they know they are not beholden to serving their husbands or their in-laws, when they have a say in the relationship, the continued freedom (not “permission”) to choose their own destiny.This would all have been just as well were it not for the utterances of the bride, Padukone herself. This sort of homage to the husband was not the sum of Padukone’s visible devotion; in one post-wedding interview she commented that she was certain that her husband had a higher IQ than her. The feminist bridal laugh, it seems, had been gobbled up by yet another Indian celebrity; or rather, with another laugh-filled bridal photo shoot — another Indian starlet who would think nothing of taking on roles that idealise submissive women. Add to this a sensible number of celebrity guests and a jet-setting panoply of venues and you have yourself a standard celebrity wedding. There are the lavish displays of silk and brocade and velvet finery, the tonnes of flowers of every hue and shade and the massive quantities of food (in Padukone’s Bengaluru ceremony at least five kinds of cuisine were served).By arrangement with Dawn.”

So read the headline in the Print, India, the day after some of the first wedding pictures of the Bollywood actor were released. To imagine that these actors whose staged wedding shoots complete with their staged candid laughter, can somehow be indicative of an upcoming reformation of the wedding and possibly even the marriage are trite and deceptive. The two women in question, may they laugh heartily forever, are ones with tremendous influence over a film industry that has long refused to cast women in anything more than stock variations on the usual roles, with a mere handful devoted to strong women who challenge and rebel rather than submit and suppress.Patriarchy must indeed crumble and brides must indeed be free to laugh.Amid all this usualness, something distinctive must be said about the nuptials that have recently got under way.Entertainment writers charged with covering celebrity weddings have a difficult task; significance must be found somehow in what is the mainstay at events such as these. With one celebrity Bollywood wedding sporting wild laughing, patriarchy was scheduled to die; with two, it seemed nearly certain it would wither and die of its own accord. The whirlwind romance that left many unconvinced endured and soon became an engagement; with due alacrity, it was time for a wedding