Writer and Director: Rubaiyat Hossain
Much like Sarmad Sultan Khoosat and Sundus Hashmi’s Lali screening at the BFI London Film Festival, Rubaiyat Hossain’s The Difficult Bride leans into the notion of the supernatural, of curses and omens, as a reluctant young bride approaches her wedding day. However far from a story of virginal innocence, this fiancée loves her man and exists within a very contemporary relationship, yet she fights against the traditions and expectations that a big Indian wedding place on her, most notably its demands of beauty and physical perfection.
Grumpy about the excessive beauty routines she must endure to prepare herself for marriage, Zaineen spends weeks at the salon and told openly that everything from her weight to her skin tone, hair and shape need improvement. But this rebellious bride-to-be is only interested in smoking cigarettes which she sends one of the salon employees out to buy for her causing trouble for everyone, defying the definition of what a woman ought to be and how she should behave.
The Difficult Bride clearly has a number of things to say about the beauty rituals associated with weddings and the unrealistic standards that young women are expected to meet. There is, of course, no suggestion that her future groom is enduring anything like the same scrutiny, and the balance of modernity in the attitudes and behaviours of the bride clashing with the limited and limiting ancient rituals is well developed. However, the film struggles to create much sympathy for a character who is clearly spoiled and while beleaguered, is often entitled too, sitting around and chewing her nails (even after a manicure) and being entirely self-absorbed.
This alienation from her is only enhanced by the visual contrasts in Hossain’s film, of creepy crawlies, meat covered in flies and the creature that Zaineen believes has taken possession of her. There are interesting juxtapositions, plenty and waste, of fertility and death – a theme familiar in artwork, particularly in the eighteen century – but Hossain doesn’t do enough with it. The finale has an act of defiance that feels welcome and liberated yet how Zaineen is part of the corruption of flesh as well as the solution could be better explored.
Zaineen Chowdhury Karim carries the film well, aided by Sunerah Binte Kamal as the salon worker and near-servant – who also becomes the cursed bride stalking her employer, a notion that could make for a stronger subplot as the working-class character must save for a less lavish wedding than the one Zaineen is handed and doesn’t want. The Difficult Bride proves difficult to love but certainly has some thoughts worth hearing.
In the Shadows is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2026 from 7-18 October.
