Monsoon Wedding
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Movie Reviews of Monsoon Wedding
Movie Review: What are you doing you idiot?
Summary: 5 Stars
I've only just gotten into the Indian movie arena and have seen some very good films. Monsoon Wedding is one of the best. It's a look into a culture that Americans don't often get to see. It's about a family that is deeply stressed out over an upcoming wedding. The marriage has been arranged buy the bride's mother and father. If only they knew that their daughter Aditi was in the midst of a love affair with a married man.
Naseeruddin Shah is wonderful as Lalit Verma, the brides father. Cash poor at the moment, he struggles to give his daughter the wedding she deserves. Shefali Shetty plays the part of the bride to be, Aditi (she's really a pop star). She has big beautiful eyes and is a newcomer to the business. The groom to be (who's name escapes me) is drop dead gorgeous (and why shouldn't he be, he's a model in real life). Aside from this budding love story is another, less complicated love story between the event planner P.K. Dubey played by Vijay Raaz and the housekeeper Alice, played by Tilotama Shome. Both are also new to the acting business. This second romance is the more poignant of the two. It seems that all the newcomers in this film are very talented and will go very far. Raaz is a real find. He has an unsual but very expressive face.
There is yet another story going on in the film. Lalit's niece Deedee lives with him. She a lovely girl who has'nt found the right man yet. Enter Tej Uncle, Lalit's brother in law. She doesn't seem to like him much. That's all I'll say about this secret. You'll have to see it for yourself.
Lalit also has a nephew that he doesn't think is terribly bright. All through the film he calls him idiot. There is also Lalit's son who does nothing but watch videos and cooking shows all day. Lalit thinks he should send his son to boarding school to toughen him up. Sounds just like home doesn't it?
This is a rich film full of colors, sights and sounds of Dehli. The cast got along so well that it seemed as though we were watching a real family on the screen. Will the wedding take place? Will the event planner and the maid get together? Will Deedee straighten out her problems with Tej Uncle? Buy this DVD and find out.
Monsson Wedding is a really enjoyable film especially for those who don't know much about the Punjabi culture. It is a little like My Big Fat Greek Wedding but the tone of Monsoon Wedding is much more serious. I recommend it highly. Please get the soundtrack as well.
No nudity or sex but there are a few curse words here and there. I suggest a viewing age of at least 13 years old.
Movie Review: Bravo Mira!
Summary: 5 Stars
Monsoon Wedding is a masterpiece. Rarely I watch a film and come out with a sense of well being, totally satisfied, but with Monsoon Wedding, the joy of watching films, and enjoying cinema as an art form of the most sophisticated kind was rekindled.If watching movies is compared to eating out, then I do enjoy my pizzas and pastas and burgers, but once in a while when I decide to have a gourmet meal, the difference is immediately felt:
Moonsoon Wedding is similar to a gourmet meal which you know will not happen too often, but when it does you will totally savour it.
This film is multi-layered, deep, funny and poignant, all blended together finely in a rich Indian canvas full of colour and life.
The wedding preparations of the arranged marriage of an upper class Indian beauty (Actress Vashundara Das, who does more playback singing for Bollywood movies and little acting) to an Americanized Indian, becomes a social backdrop that reflects on one hand the Indian culture it comes from, and the complex family relationships that can be common in many cultures on the other.
Most surprising is the issue of child abuse that was totally an unexpected element/sub plot of the film, but handled powerfully and with care,with top acting from Shefali Shetty(the once abused child who rightly suspects that the same relative is doing it again to another child) and Naseeruddin Shah (her decent devoted uncle who raised her and the father of the bride).
Another subplot which was handled very smartly and which added a lot of humour, was the class issue, as we get to see a sample of the Indian working class through the love story of the servant girl 'Alice' and the wedding arranger (an excellent Vijay Raaz).The visible transformation of Raaz as he realizes his feelings for Alice is at times bittersweet and heartwarming, and their developing relationship provide us with unforgettable scenes.
The genuis of Nair, is the fact that Monsson Wedding is not sentimental: the emotional scenes are not long enough to fall into that trap, yet their impact and message is all the same to the point.
Moreover, I loved the hand held shots of Delhi, which as brief as they were,not only succeeded in capturing the colour of the city but somewhat its soul as well.
Monsoon Wedding is first and foremost a director's film, from one of the most talented filmmakers these days,a film that should certainly be in your collection, to go back to it once in a while and savour it like the finest gourmet it is . Bravo Mira!
Movie Review: Delightful comedic reflection on modern Indian culture.
Summary: 5 Stars
Monsoon Wedding is a mature woman's reflection on the complexities and contradictions of modern Indian culture. There is an arranged marriage and a romantic marriage, an unmarried woman who is sexually active and an unmarried woman who abstains, Indians who want to be more traditional and Indians who want to be more modern. There is upper class love and working class love. As a young woman, Nair directed Mississippi Masala, a story of an Indian family that is forced to leave Uganda and move to Mississippi when Amin rises to power and persecutes the Indians. Mississippi Masala explores the contradictions of Indian society as well, but in a critical way. The desire to adopt mainstream American culture and the desire to remain traditional are both lampooned. In contrast, Mississippi Masala explored contradictions and problems in African American working class culture in a very sympathetic manner, producing one of the very few portrayals of wholesome Black family life that feels real to me.
In Monsoon wedding a more mature Nair describes promblematic aspects of Indian culture in a sympathetic manner, emphasizing the ways in which livingness and integrity allow several very different types of Indians to overcome obstacles and thrive. To me this, much more than Nair's Kama Sutra, is a tale of love.
This movie is rated R. It has a little semi-nudity, some sexual situations, some use of a profane word and some discussion of childhood sexual abuse.
It celebrates women's sensuality in a very modest way with none of the punishment of female sexuality so common to American films. Instead (repeating myself somewhat but, hey, I am not getting paid) it presents a variety of choices, including constraint, and some of their consequences.
If your teenager has seen any R rated films, or some sophistication about sex, this is a good film to see.
The photography is beautiful, the music wonderful, and the multiple plots interesting and compelling. I saw Monsoon Wedding twice, then spent two weeks persuading my teenage daughter, who loves her father but has little time for him, to come see it with me. She loved it too.
This is a lovely film. See it. Enjoy yourself and experience the ways in which another culture confronts problems common to human existence in all cultures.
Movie Review: Delightful comedic reflection on modern Indian culture.
Summary: 5 Stars
Presuming you have read other reviews, Monsoon Wedding is a mature woman's reflection on the complexities and contradictions of modern Indian culture. There is an arranged marriage and a romantic marriage, an unmarried woman who is sexually active and an unmarried woman who abstains, Indians who want to be more traditional and Indians who want to be more modern. There is upper class love and working class love. As a young woman, Nair directed Mississippi Masala, a story of an Indian family that is forced to leave Uganda and move to Mississippi when Amin rises to power and persecutes the Indians. Mississippi Masala explores the contradictions of Indian society as well, but in a critical way. The desire to adopt mainstream American culture and the desire to remain traditional are both lampooned. In contrast, Mississippi Masala explored contradictions and problems in African American working class culture in a very sympathetic manner, producing one of the very few portrayals of wholesome Black family life that feels real to me.
In Monsoon wedding a more mature Nair describes promblematic aspects of Indian culture in a sympathetic manner, emphasizing the ways in which livingness and integrity allow several very different types of Indians to overcome obstacles and thrive. To me this, much more than Nair's Kama Sutra, is a tale of love.
I don't have the rating in front of me, but to me this is a PG-13 movie. It has a little semi-nudity and some sexual situations. It celebrates women's sensuality in a very modest way with none of the punishment of female sexuality so common to American films. Instead (repeating myself somewhat but, hey, I am not getting paid) it presents a variety of choices, including constraint, and some of their consequences.
The contrast between Monsoon Wedding and Mississippi Masala is heightened by the fact that several actors appear in both movies, including the father and the wedding planner.
The photography is beautiful, the music wonderful, and the multiple plots interesting and compelling. I saw Monsoon Wedding twice, then spent two weeks persuading my teenage daughter, who loves her father but has little time for him, to come see it with me. She loved it too.
This is a lovely film,
Movie Review: Delightful comedic reflection on modern Indian culture.
Summary: 5 Stars
Presuming you have read other reviews, Monsoon Wedding is a mature woman's reflection on the complexities and contradictions of modern Indian culture. There is an arranged marriage and a romantic marriage, an unmarried woman who is sexually active and an unmarried woman who abstains, Indians who want to be more traditional and Indians who want to be more modern. There is upper class love and working class love. As a young woman, Nair directed Mississippi Masala, a story of an Indian family that is forced to leave Uganda and move to Mississippi when Amin rises to power and persecutes the Indians. Mississippi Masala explores the contradictions of Indian society as well, but in a critical way. The desire to adopt mainstream American culture and the desire to remain traditional are both lampooned. In contrast, Mississippi Masala explored contradictions and problems in African American working class culture in a very sympathetic manner, producing one of the very few portrayals of wholesome Black family life that feels real to me.
In Monsoon wedding a more mature Nair describes promblematic aspects of Indian culture in a sympathetic manner, emphasizing the ways in which livingness and integrity allow several very different types of Indians to overcome obstacles and thrive. To me this, much more than Nair's Kama Sutra, is a tale of love.
I don't have the rating in front of me, but to me this is a PG-13 movie. It has a little semi-nudity and some sexual situations. It celebrates women's sensuality in a very modest way with none of the punishment of female sexuality so common to American films. Instead (repeating myself somewhat but, hey, I am not getting paid) it presents a variety of choices, including constraint, and some of their consequences.
The contrast between Monsoon Wedding and Mississippi Masala is heightened by the fact that several actors appear in both movies, including the father and the wedding planner.
The photography is beautiful, the music wonderful, and the multiple plots interesting and compelling. I saw Monsoon Wedding twice, then spent two weeks persuading my teenage daughter, who loves her father but has little time for him, to come see it with me. She loved it too.
This is a lovely film,