Main Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Lillete Dubey, Shefali Shetty, Vasundhara Das, Parvin Dabas
Release Year: 2001
Country: IN/US
Run Time: 114 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Following up on her controversial erotic drama Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, Mira Nair directs this charming family drama about a very chaotic Indian wedding. Lalit Verma (Naseeruddin Shah) is a wealthy father who is trying to see that his daughter Aditi's wedding goes off without a hitch. Though familiar with Western ways, he has little patience with them and is dead set on seeing the nuptials done properly and traditionally. Disillusioned with her long time relationship with Vikram -- a man who is almost twice her age -- Aditi (Vasundhara Das) suddenly agrees to submit to an arranged marriage with Hemant, an engineer from Houston. Yet as the ceremony nears, she gets cold feet and returns to see her former lover -- even though it could spell disaster for everyone involved. Meanwhile, Aditi's comely 17-year-old cousin Ayesha is coming to terms with her blossoming sexuality and has her sights set on Rahul, another relative who is a college student in Australia. Then there is Rai -- also Aditi's cousin -- who has a shocking revelation to make. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto and Venice Film Festivals. At Venice, Monsoon Wedding won the prestigious Golden Lion award. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Review
Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding is a warm embrace of a movie, a bright splash of romance and familial feeling. From the explosion of color and music that marks the opening credits, Nair builds a sense of anticipation for the whirlwind of romantic comedy and drama that marks her film. Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Monsoon Wedding shares its cultural richness and sweep with her previous films. As in Salaam Bombay and Mississippi Masala, life seems to seep in from the edges of the frame. Sabrina Dhawan's script carries the Nair trademarks -- strong supporting characters, and a good ear for how people speak and interact. The script was further developed through intensive rehearsals with the cast and crew. The story is deceptively simple, but touches on issues of class, child abuse, and cultural difference, all in seamless deference to the drama. Assisted by a large and talented group of actors, including personal friends and family (for example, the filmmaker's own nephew, Ishaan Nair, plays the bride's younger brother, Varun), Nair has created a film of intimate detail and universal appeal. One standout in the cast is Vijay Raaz, who plays the buffoonish, but, as it turns out, shyly romantic, marigold-munching Dubei. Raaz manages to make this dual personality completely credible. There's a regrettable patness to the film's coda. But for the most part, Monsoon Wedding honestly captures the spirit of modern Delhi -- the mix of languages (English, Hindi, and Punjabi), the blend of traditional culture and modern technology, the proximity of upper and lower classes, and the influence of Bollywood movies on everyday life. It's not just a touching, funny, multi-layered drama, it's an exuberant love poem to a city and a culture in transition. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Monsoon Wedding director Mira Nair has described her beautiful family drama as "a Bollywood film, made on my terms." It's a pretty apt description, though on the surface the subtly acted art house picture may seem to have very little in common with the elaborately choreographed musical productions for which the Indian film industry is famous. Whereas Bollywood products are generally characterized by broadly painted heroes and villains, Nair's characters are among the most three-dimensional and honestly realized in international cinema. They are not the sort of people who populate Bollywood entertainments, but they are the sort of people who pay to see them. They don't burst simultaneously into song, but they do dance to Indian pop music in their living rooms. They do belt out traditional celebratory songs at wedding parties. What Monsoon Wedding shares with Bollywood is its appreciation of India's deeply rooted cultural enthusiasm for song and dance. The soundtrack reflects the delightfully broad spectrum of the music that plays on middle-class stereos all over modern India. There is a thumping electronic Hindi disco tune, a soaring orchestral romantic ballad from the vinyl era, an infectiously melodious contemporary pop duet, and a festive traditional spiritual performed by the internationally revered Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn. But most impressive of all is the film's original music. Sukhvinder Singh's rousing theme song, "Aaj Mera Jee Kardaa," expertly weaves traditional folk elements with sleek pop rhythms and strings. In a perfect alternate reality, it would probably be an Oscar winner. So would Mychael Danna's score. A recent Hindu groom himself and one of the most innovative composers in North American cinema, Danna elevates Nair's naturalistic hand-held camera narrative to a transcendent spiritual plane. The mystical "Fuse Box" almost single-handedly accomplishes the task of transforming the clownish wedding planner P.K. Dubey from a hilarious marigold-eating Indian version of Martin Short's Father of the Bride character to a thoroughly credible and even charming romantic lead. Unfortunately, that exquisite melody is hyped up to the point of tedium in two pounding techno remixes at the conclusion of the soundtrack album. They are a regrettable misstep in an otherwise brilliant compilation. ~ Evan Cater, All Music Guide
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Arranger), Emmanuel Chamboredon (Executive Producer), Mychael Danna (Piano), Mychael Danna (Arranger), Mychael Danna (Producer), Mychael Danna (Liner Notes), Mychael Danna (Executive Producer), Mychael Danna (Mixing), Mychael Danna (Electronics), Brij Narayan (Sarod), Mohammed Rafi (Performer), Ron Skinner (Engineer), Paul Intson (Bass), Paul Intson (Guitar (Bass)), Bally Sagoo (Producer), Ulhas Bapat (Santoor), Christopher Kimball (Executive Producer), V. Selvaganesh (Kanjira), Ian P. Hierons (Executive Producer), Alexkid (Producer), Andrew Lockington (Conductor), Andrew Lockington (Orchestration), Andrew Lockington (String Conductor), Aruna Narayan Kalle (Sarangui), Susan Jacobs (Executive Producer), Jodi Tack (Art Direction), Chab (Mastering), DJ BNX (Producer), Rakesh Chaurasia (Bansuri), Sunil Das (Sitar), Liyaqat Ali Khan (Sarangui)
The film's central story concerns a father, Lalit Verma (Naseeruddin Shah), who is trying to organize an enormous, chaotic, and expensive wedding for his daughter, for whom he has arranged a marriage with a man she has known for only a few weeks (Parvin Dabas as Hemant Rai). As so often happens in Mira Nair's beloved Punjabi culture, such a wedding means that, for one of the few times each generation, the whole family comes together from all corners of the globe including India, Australia and America.
The bride, Aditi Verma (Vasundhara Das), is nervous as she has been having an affair with her married ex-boss Vikram (Sameer Arya). The film also includes several subplots: Ria Verma (Shefali Shetty), a cousin of the bride, was sexually abused by her uncle, Lalit's brother-in-law and the family's patriarch, some years earlier and finally speaks out to prevent his abuse of her younger cousin, Aliyah. The wedding contractor PK Dubey (Vijay Raaz) falls in love with the family's maid, Alice (Tillotama Shome). The bride's brother, Varun, struggles with his father's disapproval of his longing to be a chef, and his angst at Varun's lack of conventional Indian masculine characteristics, possibly stemming from a struggle to come to terms with the boy's implied homosexuality. Ayesha (Neha Dubey), the youngest marriageable relative of the bride, flirts with Aditi's cousin Rahul (Randeep Hooda), who has just returned from Melbourne. This is all set within the four days preceding the wedding, predominantly at the Verma's house.
Jama Masjid Street Journal (1979) • So Far from India (1982) • India Cabaret (1985) • Children of a Desired Sex (1987) • The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat (1993) • My Own Country (1998) • The Laughing Club of India (1999)
Productions
Still, the Children Are Here (2004) • Blood Brothers (2007)
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