Monsoon Wedding

Dir: Mira Nair

2001

****

When Mira Nair's romantic drama Monsoon Wedding was released in 2001 it was referred to as a celebration of Bollywood meets Hollywood, which is simply not true. Monsoon Wedding is neither Bollywood nor Hollywood, the tagline is lazy and misleading, and somewhat insulting if you ask me, and the film deserves so much more than that. The story is something of a much ado about nothing, set before a big wedding in an upper-class modern New Delhi. The story features a financially worried father of the bride, a wedding planner smitten with the family's maid, a bride with a secret lover and an uncle with a dark secret. A large section of the story was lost when a lot of footage was destroyed when the film reels were passed through an airport x-ray machine but I'm not sure the final movie could have coped with any further sub-plots. Nair's direction is superb with every scene visually rich with colour and vibrancy. The editing is also great, as the story flows from character to character with a wonderful fluidity, no one character or story has more screen time than they need to and everyone receives their fair share. The acting is also superb, Naseeruddin Shah's performance is so real you forget that you are watching a film, it is like watching a fly on the wall documentary. The romance of the film doesn't actually come from the couple getting married but from the Wedding planner (played by the charismatic Vijay Raaz) and the family's maid Alice (played by the beautiful Tillotama Shome) which gives the story an interesting alternative look at love outside of an arranged marriage. The film is joyous, full of charm and happiness with brilliant character detail considering just how many characters there are. The film's music is also stunning, it is infectious and made me want to get up and dance. The film does have a darker side to it when a secret is unearthed by the bride's uncle. It is a delicate subject but is handled firmly by Nair and the actors involved. The visuals are stunning throughout but even more so towards the end of the film during the celebrations. The rain scenes are particularly magnificent. It was the first Indian film since Satyajit Ray's 1956 film Aparajito to win the Golden Lion, the highest prize at the Venice Film Festival, and it was well deserved. A wonderfully uplifting film that is perfect to get lost in.