‘Picture This’ Review: Cast Simone Ashley In Everything!

I was truly unprepared for how much I would love Simone Ashley; thank you for bringing her to my attention, Prarthana Mohan, you’re the GOAT. I will say due to some negative TikToks surrounding the writing, I admit I had my hesitations going into the film. But I soon had a blast following Pia (Simone Ashley) and her family throughout the movie! 

The film, which releases on Prime Video on March 6th, follows 30-year-old Pia as she struggles to balance her career life with her love life. Upon attending her sister’s wedding, a guru prophecizes that she’ll find her soulmate within the next five dates, to which her mom (Sindhu Vee) and sister (Anoushka Chadha) decide to speed up the process by sending Pia on several blind dates while the month-long traditional Indian wedding ceremony progresses. 

With the photography shop that she runs with her gay best friend Jay (Luke Fetherston) on the decline, things couldn’t get worse for Pia… until she runs into her ex-boyfriend turned Best Man Charlie (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) at her sister’s wedding. As blind dates go wrong and drama ensues, Pia finds herself in an emotional situation of having to confront her fears of love. 

Picture This Review

Even though I’m a sucker for mid-budget romcoms starring a charismatic lead, I wasn’t prepared for how much I was going to like this movie. Picture This has feel-good vibes the entire time and never leaves you bored, and most of that can be attributed to Simone Ashley’s charm and hilarious character. I personally haven’t seen Bridgerton or Sex Education yet, but I am sold from this film alone on Ashley taking over as the next it-girl. 

Director Prarthana Mohan knocked it out of the park when conveying the South Asian diasporic culture in London for this movie. Between the characters sharing a broad understanding of their religion and culture and yet living unquestionably British lives, it begs the question of why Pia falling in love with Charlie, a white guy, is deemed offensive by an early public reception. While, yes, it is true that there’s a disproportionate ratio of South Asian leads in Western media falling in love with a brown man, nothing about this movie embraced a concept of Indian inferiority. 

I felt Picture This displayed an accurate representation of the Indian and South Asian diaspora in Europe. People who are educated about and embrace their culture while also acknowledging the context of their surroundings and acclimate accordingly. I don’t believe that I would have the same opinion if this movie was set in America, as none of these context-dependent inferences would have as much weight given the smaller South Asian, and even smaller Indian, community. However, it’s important to acknowledge that the setting of a story matters enough to affect character priorities and that criticizing a movie because your personal perspective doesn’t match is counterproductive, especially to this subgenre of movies targeted towards the South Asian diaspora. 

To compare it against another romcom in a similar vein, Wedding Season, Picture This knocks it out of the park. The 2022 Netflix film, directed by white Marmaduke director Tom Dey, was so bafflingly atrocious that I can’t believe they had the audacity to target South Asian audiences. The film was filled to the brim with unnecessary social commentary, borderline repulsive leading characters, and the occasional “samosa” reference to draw the viewer’s attention back from their boredom. 

Picture This doesn’t need any of this to succeed, and screenwriter Nikita Lalwani was clearly careful in balancing a story about an out-of-business photographer who finds love with an Indian background and wedding setting. References to Pia’s Indian heritage are engrained in the story enough for any viewer to infer, or even learn, more about Indian culture without feeling like it’s the sole reason for the story’s existence.

If you need a quick movie to watch this weekend, make sure it’s Picture This. Between Simone Ashley’s undeniable charm and personality mixed with a heartwarming story about a woman having to find herself again at 30, it’s a no-brainer that this film will be regarded highly by her fans and be cemented as a classic in Ashley’s filmography. 

Picture This was directed by Prarthana Mohan and written by Nikita Lalwani. The film stars Simone Ashley, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Sindhu Vee, Anoushka Chadha, and Luke Fetherston. Picture This will stream on Amazon Prime Video beginning March 6, 2025.