Monsoon Wedding

Here's a movie which is not made for arty cinema lovers per se. It captures the craziness surrounding a typical North Indian wedding. I liked the lead characters since they were credible and interesting. They were so normal people unlike mainstream Indian cinema from Bollywood. It made me chuckle at times. -gg

It's only March, but I already nominate "Monsoon Wedding" as one of the best movies of the year.

Yeah, we've seen ethnic weddings/family gatherings before ("Lovers and Other Strangers," "Wedding Banquet," "The Godfather," "Avalon," "What's Cooking," "Tortilla Soup," among others), but this is still an original.

Not just because it takes place in India, not just because the characters come in from the Indian diaspora of IT jobs in the U.S., Australia, and the Middle East to the old homestead, and switch between Hindi and English mid-sentence, and switch comfortably between tradition and modernity.

But because these are completely wholly-formed, original characters and a sophisticated story. Yeah I was confused sometimes about who's related to whom, but from the rebellious teen-age boy dreaming of being a chef, to the bride with a secret lover, to the Houston engineer come home for an arranged marriage, to the complicated intra-family obligations and past positive and negative interactions, to cousins, aunts and uncles who genuinely love each other -- all are fully realized and completely believable, being both very individual and very universal.

Only a smidgen of a coincidence in the last moments of a too neat happy ending for a very sympathetic character mars the story, but understandably the audience cheers at the end.

A bonus is the wonderful use of Indian music -- I have zero idea if it's folk or Bollywood music they're singing but the soundtrack is exotic and exuberant as the characters use it to liberate thoughts and feelings within the structure of wedding rituals, with dancing as well. Stay through the credits as the ritual continues.

I'm ready to go see it again any time I'm feeling down.

(originally written 3/11/2002)

I was skeptical at first about seeing this movie. I'm not into Bollywood movies at all. I saw this film with a high school senior class in Newark, New Jersey and they were captivated by the film as well as myself. Mira Nair is becoming one of the world's best known film directors as I write this review with Namesake on it's way to release. The characters were fully fleshed out rather than just caricatures. Who didn't love the wedding planner who curses like a sailor and the servant who succumbed to his charm and spell? Who didn't love the actual couple based on arrangement between families? The bride has a secret that could have destroyed or stopped the marriage. My sister's friend is probably going to be married in New Delhi herself. I wonder how similar and different the wedding and reception will be. From what I know about Indian weddings, I can invite you which means you, your family, friends, and neighbors. They appear to have a really good time at weddings in India. There was a serious topic that could have dampened or ruined the movie but it was well-orchestrated by the director.

This movie is full of joy. Happy, cheerful, with so many characters, and most of them good, interesting ones. It is the story of a wedding in upper class Delhi. A large family spread all over the world reunites for the big event and all the ties and feelings between siblings, cousins, parents, friends are shown and expressed in a light but touching way. Love, friendship, envy, pain, sorrow, loneliness, passion and hope in a nearly perfect mix. This movie is full of colours and music, and it is an accurate portrait of modern India (the wealthier part of it at least). All actors are good, and some of them are gorgeous too. Very refreshing as there are no super stars, no blood, no perfect special effects, no sex. Mira Nair you are great ! Hope you'll give us many other movies this good.

I just finished watching this beautiful film for the third time. The first time I saw it, I really liked it. The second time I got more out of it and I liked it even more. I just finished watching it with the director's commentary and I can honestly say I had no idea how good this film actually was! It was shot entirely on location, in just 30 days on a very low budget with a cast of 68 and only a handful of them were real actors! (A great deal of actors who were originally cast in this movie pulled out at the last minute or didn't even bother to show up) I guess that is the beauty of this movie though. Nair wanted to capture the essence of the Punjabi people in a true setting. She didn't want to go for the big elaborate sets where people spontaneously break out into a big song and dance number like you see in a lot of Bollywood movies. Nair wanted her characters to start singing because that is what they do. One of her comments compared Indians to the Irish as two cultures who love to use song. Throughout the whole movie, you get such a feeling of reality as if you are a voyeur who is really looking into these people's lives. They are lying naked and vulnerable before us. The character of Alice really stood out for me. Tilotama Shome's talent radiated from her and I found myself wondering what other films she had done. In Nair's commentary, the answer was revealed: ZERO. Shome was an English Literature student in Delhi University. The scene wear Alice is pretending to be a bride (like a child playing dress up) is so simple yet so powerful and beautiful. I have a few reviews stating that Tilotama was miscast as the maid. That she was to "elegant" and self aware to play such a character, however, that is exactly what Nair wanted in the character of Alice. Nair wanted to make a statement about people. Our beauty and presence comes from within our soul, not from our lot in life. Tilotama Shome can have a brilliant career ahead of her if she wants it. It is also worthwile to mention two more exceptionally powerful performances by Vijay Raaz (who was a struggling actor before this movie) as Dubey (Alice's love interest) and Shefali Shetty, as Ria (who has a dark secret that can ruin the binds of family) These three performances were outstanding, but the entire cast was incredible. This movie is definitely worth seeing, but I really have to recommend you watch it like I did - more than once. It really is worth it.