Monsoon Wedding (2001)
Directed by Mira Nair
Written by Sabrian Dhawan
Starring Naseeruddin Shah, Lilete Dubey
Release Date November 30th, 2001
Published November 30th, 2002
For those who don’t know what Bollywood is, you're not alone. Until last year's Oscars when the film Lagaan received a Best Foreign Film nomination and news organizations began running news stories about India’s filmmaking machine, I thought Bollywood was a misprint. In reality, Bollywood is the name of India’s film industry which turns out more films every year than even Hollywood. Most Bollywood movies are musicals, in which characters and dialogue are secondary to lavish production design and bring-down-the-house broadway style musical numbers.
Indian director Mira Nair bucks the musical trend of her Indian brethren with American style narrative-based films that allow Indian actors to carry the day. Her most recent film, Monsoon Wedding is a joyous tribute to her family and heritage that combines classical Bollywood elements with her Americanized narrative style.
Monsoon is the story of an arranged marriage between Aditi (Vasundhara Das) and Hemant (Parvin Dubas) and the chaos that surrounds it. Aditi’s father Lalit (Naseeruddin Shah) is attempting to plan the wedding in the midst of running out of money and dealing with an incompetent wedding planner named Dubey (Vijay Raaz), who has no idea what anything actually costs until he finishes doing it.
Dubey is also involved in a romance with Lalit’s maid Alice (Tilotama Shome), a romance that must be kept quiet out of fear of being fired. Aditi has even more problems having only agreed to the arranged marriage because her current lover won’t leave his wife. Aditi still has feelings for him even as her wedding is only two days away. Drama also surrounds Aditi’s cousin Ria (Shefali Shetty) and a family friend who, it is inferred, may have done something to Ria when she was a child.
As the film goes on music is weaved throughout, but not Broadway style sing and dance numbers, rather a heavy dose of Indian pop tunes which are surprisingly good even if you don’t understand the language. The songs are as much a part of the film as the actors, and while they don’t tell the story, the songs give the film its light airy tone.
While Nair focuses on storytelling, she does indulge in classic Bollywood production design. Bright lavish colors and even a dance number. These things are not out of character, they are a traditional part of an Indian marriage.
I am curious about how much of Monsoon Wedding is an insight into the real lives of Indian people. As I previously mentioned, Nair has an Americanized way of telling a story, which some Indian critics say doesn’t reflect real Indians. Rather odd criticism from critics who most often enjoy lavish musicals where characters break out in song for no reason. Somehow I doubt Lagaan or any other traditional Indian film is a real reflection on Indian life.
The same criticism was leveled by French critics towards the French romance Amelie. French critics felt that Amelie was too American to be a real French film. Accurate or not, Monsoon Wedding does at times feel a little Hollywood, or as Indian critics politely put it, too westernized.
Monsoon Wedding is very reminiscent of another wedding-based movie, Nia Vardalos My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Both films share the themes of marriage and family, though in Greek wedding the bride and groom choose each other, in Monsoon Wedding the marriage is arranged. Surprisingly though, the arrangement of the marriage isn’t much of an issue. Both Aditi and Hemant accept that this is part of their heritage and while the lives they have lived to this point have been entirely separate they see a future together. Arranged marriage or not you can see through pride and cooperation that this marriage has as much a chance at lasting as any. It may not be sexy, but what tradition is.
