Monsoon Wedding

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.

Watching this movie was, for someone such as me, who had fallen in love with Delhi and NSD(National School of Drama, New Delhi), almost simultaneously (no, I was not a student there; I just went to watch their plays) more than a decade ago, a journey down memory lane. And not just me! Many of my friends, who spent a considerable time in Delhi at some or other point of their life, agreed with me on this point. In the words of one of my friends,"Monsoon Wedding is a documentary about Delhi.". For me, it was thrilling to view the places near Jama Masjid, where once I spent many afternoons at my friend's home, (and surely, nor far from where Dubey's residence would be!) after so many years.

But then what can I do? "We are like that only."

This movie has some of the best Indian actors, such as Naseeruddin Shah, Khulbhushan Kharbanda and Rajat Kapoor in it. But the guy who beats all of them and steals the show is our Dubeyji, Vijay Raaz. I had noticed him first in the movie "Jungle", where his portrayal of an almost silent (had he taken Omerta, by any chance?) bandit-gang member was excellent; but in Monsoon Wedding, his portrayal of Dubeyji beat all these first-rate actors. I've been a great fan of Naseeruddin Shah for quarter of a century now; but in this movie, my vote goes to Raaz.

The most striking feature of this movie is Mira Nair's ultimate attention to detail. (I think this is also a major factor that adds such authenticity to the character of Dubey!). From the Hindu ritualistic red-thread worn by Shah on his wrist (it must be put for the movie, Shah being a Muslim in real life, or was it that his real-life Hindu wife made him wear that!), to the pair of shorts worn by Raaz, Nair & Co. has painstakingly paid enough amount of attention to details. A Dubey would surely dress, talk and carry himself the way depicted in this movie. His choice of profanities are the most authentic that one would hear on the streets of Delhi. Alice and Ria also put very powerful performances!

This movie took me back to Delhi, and to the corridors of the Univ. I (and Nair, much before I, for that matter!) once walked on. Anyone who loves, or plans to fall in love with, Delhi should watch this movie, because as Mauz once said, "Who would go away, Mauz, leaving the labyrinths of Delhi behind?" (Kaun jaye, Mauz, Dilli ki galiyan chhod kar?).

Notes: The following is in response to some of the comments by Western reviewers.

1) Just because he addresses his nephew as "idiot", the bride's father is not mean and abusive; this is just a term of endearment. I guess, this is just a matter of cultural difference; things that are accepted in the Orient may be completely offensive in the Occident, and vice versa. This reminds me of the autobiographical note by the Egyptian born Nobel laureate, Prof. Ahmed Zewail, whose (toally accepted and used in the Arab world) figure of speech "I will kill you" terrified a classmate at Caltech (or was it Berkeley?).

2) Some people thought that the two guys sharing a bed (when the young girl offers a kind of striptease show to the Australian guy) was a hint at homosexuality; it was not! I don't mean that homosexuality does not exist in India; but it's quite common in India for people to share a bed when there's a shortage of beds (especially when a number of relatives and guests come down for, say, a wedding, to stay overnight, and then mostly younger members of the family are pushed to share beds.).

Note: Robert de Niro and Hervey Keital slept on the same bed in "Mean Streets", but they were not gay either!

3) Would the maid and the wedding planner be allowed to dance with the upper-class family? My Answer is: I think, yes! Most of the Punjabi weddings include Whiskey/alcohol in the menu (at least, for the important guests), and once you have alcohol in your veins, Universal Brotherhood (Bhai-chara in Hindi) prevails. I, in spite of not being a Punjabi or a Native Delhiite, took part in such wedding dances myself at times, and had seen with my own eyes such situations.

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.