'7 Days' Review
NR
Runtime: 1 Hr and 26 Minutes
Production Companies: Duplass Brothers Productions
Distributor: Cinedigm
Director: Roshan Sethi
Writers: Karan Soni, Roshan Sethi
Cast: Karan Soni, Geraldine Viswanathan, Zenobia Shroff, Aparna Nancherla, Gita Reddy, Jeffrey Self
Release Date: March 25
In Theaters Only (NY/LA)
As if their pre-arranged date, organized by their traditional Indian parents, wasn't uncomfortable enough, Ravi and Rita are forced to shelter in place together as COVID-19's reach intensifies.
With the amount of COVID-related films that have been premiering at film festivals lately, indie filmmakers have found a way to use the pandemic as a backdrop to tell familiar tales in a new light. At SXSW earlier this year, there was the Mallory Everton/Stephen Meek comedy Recovery, which put a fun new spin on the road-trip comedy with COVID as the crutch of the story. In 7 Days, co-writer/director Roshan Sethi uses it as a basis to explore a budding romance, focusing on the 21st century Indian-American experience.
Ravi (Karan Soni) is an old-fashioned man who abides by his background’s cultural values where he denounces meat, swearing, alcohol, exclusively watches Bollywood films, and has a traditional mindset when it comes to marriage where you only have seven days to be enough of a match before getting wed. Rita (Geraldine Viswanathan), on the other hand, leans heavily towards the American in her name, for she is independent, free-spirited, and only puts up a traditional facade in order to please her overbearing mother who pays for the beautiful yet messy house she lives in. Since travel restrictions are in place after their bad first date, Ravi is unable to call a cab to get back home. Rita allows him to stay with her despite their date going really poorly. Ravi quickly learns that Rita is not what she seems as he sees her gorge on fried chicken, down alcohol, and even finds her dildo lying about in her bathroom. They lead two vastly different lifestyles but both share the same varying degree of loneliness. So when they’re forced to spend a week together during quarantine, the title comes into fruition and Sethi’s film grips you as a solid rom-com that is able to shine outside of the setting.
Karan Soni and Geraldine Viswanathan are downright delightful with great banter and chemistry. Soni’s deadpan delivery with his uptight yet sympathetic character, mixed with Viswanathan’s cynical and honest humor, makes for a joyous time. Considering most of the film is set inside a house, you feel like you’re beside these two strangers who must overcome their differences and learn from each other. Soni and Viswanathan had prior experience working together on the TBS anthology series Miracle Workers (which is on its way to a third season in July) and you feel how comfortable they are with each other through their performances. They play their character types of neurotic, awkward guy/independent woman extremely well and are so entertaining to watch. Though they are fantastic together, it’s Soni who does the heavy lifting, for his Ravi is written to be so uptight and overbearingly traditional but he’s still earnest enough to root for. You can tell Soni and Sethi paid attention to detail while crafting Ravi’s character and balancing him out to be endearing yet annoying, but in a sympathetic manner. So when the inevitable beats come where Ravi must loosen up and break his own pre-set rulebook, it’s emotionally effective. This is a great showcase of his talents as a leading man and proves he can portray challenging characters with his charm and natural sense of humor.
As much as the film tries to focus on two leads, there’s a major imbalance regarding Viswanathan’s Rita. While Ravi feels like a fully fleshed-out person, Rita feels more like an archetype and doesn’t have as much depth as her costar’s character. He goes through more emotional growth than her and since the plot is about these two having to fall in love in the span of a week, it takes a major obvious turning point in order for her to fully gravitate towards him. While some of the beats in that turning point make for the most thematically riveting moments in the entire film, it still doesn’t give Rita natural agency to fall for Ravi, especially with how passive she is towards his straight-laced personality early on. There’s a scene where Rita preps Ravi for an arranged Zoom date and, as it potentially goes for a platonic route, it’s completely abandoned shortly after as Ravi grows more attached to her. It would’ve made for an even bolder story with a more timely factor, which is ironic because it’s a movie set in the recent past. Also, Rita has a hella convoluted subplot regarding a mystery stranger nicknamed “Daddy” who is presented early on but it hardly has any payoff. While Geraldine Viswanathan is as incredible as usual, the way that Rita was crafted could’ve been more detailed to make her as dimensional as Ravi.
I’ve now succumbed to the fact that COVID-based movies have quickly/unfortunately become their own sub-genre. At this point, there are over a dozen films, both narrative and documentaries, that tell their own distinct tales of 2020, which is still… pretty fresh. For God’s sake, we’re still in the pandemic despite everything opening up again. That being said, I’d watch a COVID movie over a war movie any day. There have been more movies set in COVID times that I’ve unexpectedly enjoyed and, to my surprise, that includes 7 Days — an entertaining romantic comedy carried by the two leads and their delightful chemistry. While the screenplay follows familiar trappings, writers Karan Soni and Roshan Sethi add enough commentary about tradition and individuality to make this film stand on its own.
