7 Days

By: Jennifer Vintzileos

Can being stuck together make the heart grow fonder? In Roshan Sethi’s film 7 Days we are treated to a love story in the time of COVID-19 that doesn’t quite fit the ideal rom-com but ticks all the boxes that many of us now seek: love and acceptance (even it is eventual) for who we really are. And, of course, the realization that while we may have conceptions of our perfect person, sometimes that person is the one we least suspect.

In the beginning we meet Ravi (Karan Soni) and Rita (Geraldine Viswanathan). Their future as a couple has been determined by an Indian dating site that helps men and women meet and examine the potential for marriage. While Ravi’s mother (Gita Reddy) and Rita’s mother (Zenobia Shroff) present their children in the best of light, at the end of their semi-disastrous first date the pandemic hits and Ravi and Rita’s date goes from semi-awkward into “stay in place” territory when Ravi is unable to secure a vehicle to leave. From there the proverbial masks come off and despite Rita seeming perfect on paper to Ravi she is anything but.

Ravi’s regimented and traditional lifestyle is the opposite of Rita’s carefree nature, coupled with her secret relationship with a man she affectionately calls “Daddy” (Mark Duplass) over the phone; Rita had only agreed to the dating site to appease her mother, who has no problem tearing Rita’s self-esteem down little by little. Of course, this is only out of love for her daughter—and certainly the desire to see her embrace traditional values. Yet once Rita gets Ravi to loosen up and she sees that Ravi tries to embrace traditions that he himself never had in his own childhood, the dynamic between the characters shifts and they find that the adage “opposites attract” is truer than they think.

Roshan Sethi manages to give us a perfectly imperfect love story in 7 Days yet it is Soni and Viswanathan that bring life to their characters. Ravi and Rita’s dynamic does not quite fit the stereotypical roles, yet they work. Where you would expect Rita to be the more emotional and empathic character, it is Ravi who takes on that role while Rita fits comfortably in her beer drinking, foul-mouthed demeanor. Ravi cries at telling Rita about a Bollywood film, has a bit of a cleaning fetish and manages to win over Rita’s mother. In turn, Rita intentionally plies Ravi with alcohol to get him to loosen up and cracks crass jokes in a way only Rita knows how.

What I also love is how Ravi and Rita shake up one another’s current situation. Initially, Ravi is quite content in his picture-perfect mold, serial soulmate searching through a series of dates and later Zoom meetings while in lockdown. And while Rita seems to be engrossed in her own issues with “Daddy,” jealousy seems to rear its ugly head once she notices Ravi trying to move forward in his own romantic endeavors. Yet Ravi seems to be dealing with his own realizations of what Rita means to him, especially when she tests positive for COVID-19 and ends up in the hospital. The uncertainty of Rita’s future brings Ravi out of his shell and helps him to understand that there is more to life than just compatibility in career and child-rearing—it is caring for someone on a deeper level.

Love is not always a straight path—it can have some crazy twists and turns. You may find that perfection does not always mean perfect for you. And sometimes, it can come in the people you least expect.