Move over Seema Taparia, there’s a new matchmaker in town

Matchmaking has always been a numbers game—and Materialists just admits it out loud. In Materialists, the upcoming film from Past Lives director Celine Song, matchmaking sheds sentimentality for sharp strategy. Set on the Upper East Side, the story follows a woman (played by Dakota Johnson) who’s built both a career and a lifestyle around arranging relationships for the wealthy elite. Unlike the emotionally invested matchmakers of the past, she approaches love as a calculated transaction.

 

Few names are as synonymous with matchmaking as the infamous Seema Taparia. For those unfamiliar with Netflix’s Indian Matchmaking, Seema—or “Seema Aunty”—rose to prominence by orchestrating traditional Indian matches with a smile and a list of firm non-negotiables. Her worldview is shaped by an older cultural logic—one where marriage is grounded in family values, astrological compatibility, and a willingness to compromise. To her, a match should ultimately make sense. And that’s exactly where Song’s protagonist diverges. She isn’t interested in compromise; she plays by a different rulebook. For her, love is currency, and she knows its market value.

Dakota Johnson’s character—a former aspiring actress turned high-end matchmaker—is poised, polished, and always aware of what she brings to the table, and what she expects in return. On the surface, it’s a love triangle: a wealthy suitor, a complicated former flame, and a woman navigating both. But this isn’t a story about choosing between two men—it’s about power. Who wields it, who wants it, and how control shifts when money enters the picture.

There’s an odd resemblance between Seema Taparia and college counsellors. Taparia promises her clients spouses who match their dreams, so long as those dreams aren’t too ambitious. Similarly, college counsellors reassure parents that their child will get into a top school, only to later suggest, “Let’s not aim for Harvard.”

In contrast to Seema Taparia’s warm, domestic approach, Johnson’s matchmaker character conducts her business in exclusive spaces and moves through calculated silences. Both women deal in love but speak different dialects. The film doesn’t critique either approach but invites us to observe the evolution of matchmaking itself—from community service to boutique consultancy.

If Indian Matchmaking revealed how class and family expectations shape romantic choices in South Asia, Materialists exposes how western matchmaking cloaks similar calculations in the language of compatibility and lifestyle branding. The criteria may differ, but the underlying currency remains the same.

 

With Materialists, Song moves away from the emotional intimacy of Past Lives toward a more satirical tone. The film portrays a world where relationships are structured less by feeling and more by access: who you know, where you live, and the image you project before you even speak.

So yes, Seema Taparia still holds court in Mumbai drawing rooms. But in Manhattan, there’s a new matchmaker—one who prioritises control over compromise.

Lead image: Getty Images 

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