Monsoon Wedding
by Mira Nair
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Lillete Dubey, Naseeruddin Shah, Shefali Shetty, Tillotama Shome, Vijay RaazDirector: Mira Nair
Brand: Uni
Producer: Mira Nair
Producer: Caroline Baron
Producer: Caroline Kaplan
Producer: Freny Khodaiji
Producer: Jonathan Sehring
Producer: Robyn Aronstam
Writer: Sabrina Dhawan
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Hindi (Original Language); Punjabi (Original Language); Urdu (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 114 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-09-24
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of Monsoon Wedding
Movie Review: Eliminating the Caste of Monsoon Wedding
Summary: 5 Stars
Set in a nation of over one billion people, where approximately thirty-five percent of the inhabitants live below the poverty line, Monsoon Wedding is the story of an upper-middle class family's trials and triumphs during their preparation for an elaborate wedding. Director Mira Nair, while focusing much of the audience's attention on Lalit Verma and his daughter Aditi (whose wedding serves as the platform for the plot), mindfully illustrates the social division between an upper-middle class family and an economically segregated sub-culture.
Utilizing juxtaposition of scenes in editing, Nair forbids her audience to forget that, apart from the colorful decadence of Monsoon Wedding's setting, there exists a marginalized mass with equally lucid hopes and dreams. Often strategic in their placement, images of overpopulated and squalid city streets contrast the more welcoming setting of the Verma family's home. Even within the more affluent setting, however, Nair situates Alice, the family servant, to contextually represent a society far removed from this comfortable lifestyle. In this expressive arrangement, Monsoon Wedding carefully illustrates a dividing barrier in the class distinctions of India, particularly through a tacit comparison of Alice with her wealthier counterparts.
Within her introductory scene, Alice is presented quietly executing mundane chores. While picking up used drinking glasses from her employers' patio, Alice's attention becomes fixed on a small pile of marigolds that have fallen from a decorative arrangement. The camera cuts to a medium close-up shot of her as she lifts a single blossom, in slow motion, and places it behind her ear before continuing with her task. Whatever one's analysis of the marigold's representation may be, this small action illustrates the emotional response of a person in contrast to the mechanical response of mindlessly working- that is, Alice is to be seen as more than a commodity. While particular tendencies exist within Indian culture (and most other cultures, for that matter) to dehumanize and exploit the labor of a lower economic class, Nair's intent in this scene seems to be focused on showing Alice as more than an extra body to help around the house.
At times, Alice may seem indistinguishable from the family she serves. In a following scene, for example, the younger Verma women surround Aditi and leisurely socialize. The camera then cuts to Alice, who is also laughing warmly and enjoying their company. This laughter is broken only after she rushes to a window and joyfully exclaims, "The groom!" Appearing more excited than the bride herself, she enthusiastically leans at Aditi's side and repeats, "The groom's here!" In this scene, one might feel inclined to believe that, regardless of social position, Alice is as much a member of the Verma family as Aditi.
As close as Alice appears to be with the family, however, she is unarguably separated from their lifestyle. In the first family dinner scene, the establishing shot focuses on Alice cleaning up after the Verma family and their guests as they drink, smoke cigars, and enjoy intimate interaction. Midway through the scene, the comfortable festivities are temporarily halted by a power outage. Amidst the sound of a ringing telephone and the guests' complaints, Lalit is heard hollering, "Alice, has the fuse blown?" Immediately following Lalit's implicit command for Alice to check the fuse box, Pimmi (Lalit's wife) shouts, "Alice, get the phone!" Until the film's all-inclusive ending, Alice's place within her society is a position of sacrifice and servitude where she is consistently reminded of pleasures that lie beyond her reach.
Alice's desire to enjoy the pleasures of the class she serves is best illustrated in the scene where she plays dress-up while tidying a dressing table. Adorning herself in her employers' jewelry, Alice takes time to examine how each piece looks and feels. Gradually adding more accessories to her borrowed outfit, she conclusively applies a jeweled bindi and (literally) lets her hair down. However fitting and believable the reflection in the mirror may seem to the audience, Alice's peers, upon seeing her in the contextually inappropriate attire, instinctively accuse her of theft. She immediately recognizes the futility of her pipe dream; with a disheartened expression, she grounds herself in reality and sheds the illusion of an unattainable fantasy.
Resuming the duties of her place in society, Alice returns to serving the Vermas. Going nearly unnoticed by the women of the family who sing and dance, brandishing their cell-phones and expensive jewelry in the process, Alice's only participation in the henna-party involves delivering beverages and picking up litter. In this scene, Nair makes it painfully clear that, while Alice may be physically, emotionally, and mentally similar to the other women, her current lot in life is merely to magnify their comfort.
To leave the story at this, however, would be to say that there is no hope for the lower class that Alice represents. Using love as the foundation for hope, Nair beautifully develops a romantic interest between Alice and another of Lalit's employees. Dubey, the coordinator for Aditi's wedding, courts Alice throughout the wedding's preparation (sometimes successfully, and sometimes not) until eventually proposing marriage in her darkest hour of the film. Nair uses Dubey and Alice's and Aditi and her fiancé's relationship as a link between the lower and upper classes, carefully blending the two worlds together as the film progresses toward a wedding.
On the long awaited night of Aditi's ceremony, the audience is surprised with a second wedding. Away from the marching bands and lavish formalities of Aditi's banquet, Dubey and Alice celebrate their devotion to one another with an intimate ceremony. Once again, the juxtaposition of scenes invites the audience to not only witness, but to blend the worlds of the elaborate and the simple, the humble and the ostentatious.
Upon returning to the Verma's estate, Dubey and Alice are accepted into the crowd with dancing and cheering. With the single brush of a wedding night, centuries of caste distinction have at last been swept away; Dubey is invited to enter his employer's tent (a tent built by Dubey himself) to escape the rain, while Lalit and Alice dance shoulder to shoulder. Nair wants us to believe that, if only for this evening, society has disposed of discriminating social distinction.
While the theory of a culturally unifying ceremony seems far-fetched, Nair's ideology is in-touch with the progressive ambitions of many Indians who currently seek to improve a system that subjugates millions of already disfranchised individuals. Smita Narula, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, states, "There is a growing grassroots movement of activists, trade unions, and other NGOs that are organizing to democratically and peacefully demand [the lower caste's] rights, higher wages, and more equitable land distribution. There has been progress in terms of building a human rights movement within India, and in drawing international attention to the issue" (qtd. in Mayell). In her optimistic vision of restored dignity for the servant-class of India, Mira Nair artistically contributes to this emerging beacon for global attention, making Monsoon Wedding an international voice for an intra-national ideology.
Summary of Monsoon Wedding
TWO FAMILIES FROM DIFFERENT CULTURES COME TOGETHER FOR AN ARRANGED MARRIAGE IN NEW DELHI DURING THE MONSOON SEASON. BETWEEN A STRESSED-OUT FATHER, A BRIDE WITH A BURNING PASSION FOR SOMEONE ELSE, AND A WEDDING PLANNER WITH HER OWN AGENDA,FORGET THE RAIN, IT'LL BE A MIRACLE IF THE WEDDING HAPPENS.Monsoon Wedding is a return to form for Mira Nair, director of 1988's Salaam Bombay! Nair's gift for observation of the everyday and her love for her characters make for a delightful film, which spins a web of family relationships that knit and break during a wedding at a perfect pace. The excellent performances exceed the often stereotypical roles on offer (including the incomparable Nasiruddin Shah as the harassed father, Kulbhushan Kharbanda as the comic uncle, and Shefali Chaya as the orphaned cousin). Nair's sympathetic eye for the unnoticed and the harassed is at its best with the tender romance between the servant and Dube (Vijay Raaz), the marigold-munching, upwardly mobile wedding coordinator, who brings pathos and humor to the often unseen servant classes. The handheld camera gives a docudrama feel to this celebratory look at the upper-middle-class Hindu Punjabi joint family, while paying tribute to modern Indian public culture of music, television, and, of course, "Bollywood." --Rachel Dwyer
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