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Monsoon Wedding Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 25 Reviews)

Bravo Mira!
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!

Awesome Movie- at last on DVD
This movie is awesome. Story line is funny, but not in a Jerry Seinfeld way- it's more sophisticated in nature. A superb love story between a soon-to-be-married girl, who's also scoring her ex-bf when the wedding procedure is going on, with a US returned handsome young man. They had their respect for this arranged marriage, and the groom decided he'll continue with the marriage even though he gets quite upset knowing that the bride still had relationship with her ex. When he bursts into emotions, she bursts into cry- perfect indian emotional outburst that leads the guy to let go all wrong of her soon-to-be bride. There is also a love thingie going on between the maid and the wedding planner- a very touchy poor class love story. There's also mention of a paedophile, which definitely is the reason why it was rated R, apart from some sexual situations. With traditional hindi wedding songs, and some western-minded views, this movie is definitely a milestone in indian film making. Thanks to Mira Nair, people from all over the world came to know about modern Indians once again. Recommended: Asoka (Quite like BraveHeart of India), DevDas (great emotional lovestory based on a Bengali classic novel), Salam Bombay (another movie by Mira Nair) and finally Maya Memsahib.

Comes Out in the Wash
This film is sort of a My Big Fat Greek Wedding for those of the Indian middle class, with fewer outright laughs but just as much heart. That said, the similarities are scarce, mostly because the cultures are so different - actually, the culture of MBFGW is American and that of Monsoon Wedding is Indian - and partly because the characters are not well known American types.

Where Monsoon Wedding succeeds, and I think brilliantly, is in making these unfamiliar character types seem like comfortable, old friends. In spite of the trilingual communication (English, Hindi, Punjabi), and perhaps because of the universal appeal of a story that mixes them, if they don't exactly conflict, the old-world values work with the modern-day mores and technology. The plot is simple: Aditi Verma (Vasundhara Das) accepts a marriage arranged by her parents (Naseeruddin Shah and Lillete Dubey) to a computer programmer from Houston she has never met (Parvin Dabas), after a failed affair with a married TV producer. The wedding planner (Vijay Raaz) is smitten with the Verma's maid (Tilotama Shome); a family benefactor is found to be a serial child molester; and a new romance develops between Aditi's attractive cousin Ayesha (Neha Dubey) and Rahul (Randeep Hooda).

That all this works so well is a credit to excellent ensemble acting and, of course, to director Mira Nair's sure hand (she directed Mississippi Masala, 1991). It is missing the point to say that things eventually work out in the end. It's the getting there, even in the monsoon rain, that's most of the fun.

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