My Bollywood Wedding

Plot summary

Maya Malik has proposed to her ideal man, Janghir Khan, and despite his family's reservations about having her as a prospective daughter-in-law, she intends to plan the perfect wedding.

Maya has to contend with both wealthy families fighting over the dowries and Janghir's sister-in-law, Seema, who dislikes her and appears to be taking over the wedding arrangements rather than simply assisting Maya with the preparations. Janghir's cousin, Zain, a George Clooney look-alike keeps offering Maya help and when Janghir appears to be distancing himself from Maya, she begins to wonder if she is marrying the right man.

Seema has a way of making Maya feel fat and useless and as time passes, she begins to realise that the wedding she was hoping for is becoming a distant dream. Maya resolves to sort herself out and take the reins back from Seema and find a way to give Janghir a wedding to be proud of.

Development and themes

My Bollywood Wedding is a sequel to Waheed's first novel The A-Z Guide to Arranged Marriage.

In a February 2011 interview, Waheed said My Bollywood Wedding "addresses the pressures of interfering family members on Asian couples, the risks associated with turning Mr Right into Mr Forever and the financial burden of getting married these days" and "shows the realities of getting married in the modern day... but the underlying aim of the book is to show our women [Asian women] operate in a new modern era with a bit of sass."

Release

My Bollywood Wedding was released by Little Black Dress on 9 December 2010.

Critical response

Debs Carr of Novelicious.com said, "I liked this book, but did feel that Maya could have retaliated a little earlier against Seema's scheming and also would have liked to read more about Janghir. On the whole though it was a good read."

TheBookbag.co.uk said, "...you'll get a good story – but there's also an intelligent and thoughtful story in there..."