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Monsoon Wedding

United States, France, Italy, Germany, India

2001

114 Min
Color
1.85:1
Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, English
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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DIR Mira Nair

EXEC Jonathan Sehring, Caroline Kaplan

PROD Caroline Baron, Mira Nair

SCR Sabrina Dhawan

DP Declan Quinn

CAST Naseeruddin Shah, Lillete Dubey, Shefali Shetty, Vijay Raaz, Tillotama Shome, Vasundhara Das, Parvin Dabas

ED Allyson C. Johnson

PROD DES Stephanie Carroll

MUSIC Mychael Danna

Venice (Competition): Golden Lion, Toronto (Gala), London (Film on the Square)

Synopsis

Cultures and families clash in Mira Nair’s exuberant Monsoon Wedding, a mix of comedy and chaotic melodrama concerning the preparations for the arranged marriage of a modern upper-middle-class Indian family’s only daughter, Aditi. Of course there are hitches—Aditi has been having an affair with a married TV host; she’s never met her husband to be, who lives in Houston; the wedding has worsened her father’s hidden financial troubles; even the wedding planner has become a nervous wreck—as well as buried family secrets. But Nair’s celebration is ultimately joyful and cathartic: a love song to her home city of Delhi and her own Punjabi family. —The Criterion Collection

Director

Original

Mira Nair

The highly acclaimed director from India, Mira Nair leapt into the world’s spotlight with her film Salaam, Bombay! This film is considered by many to be her best work although she may be better known for the controversial subject matter of her latest film Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love.

Mira Nair was born in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa to a civil servant in 1957. She went on to attend the University of New Delhi where she studied Sociology and Theater. Dissatisfied with the quality of the education, she applied elsewhere. As result she came to Harvard in 1976 on full scholarship to continue studying Sociology. While at Harvard her focus drifted to documentary film. She describes documentary as “a marriage of my interests in the visual arts, theatre, and life as it is lived”.

Mira’s first film was Jama Masjid Street Journal which was also her Master’s thesis project. This film explores the life of a traditional Muslim community from the Western perspective… read more

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Picture of I AM ... MARCY FIERCE

I AM ... MARCY FIERCE

8Sep12

The culture in India when it comes to marriage was very detailed.

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DT

24Aug12

A celebration of life, love, and the spirit and vitality of a modern, mobile India, as framed through the bustle of a family wedding and the catharsis of the monsoon season; in turn invoking, and reconciling the cultural, generational and class divides existing too. Its aesthetic in turn captures and spreads this essence, which all in all is rather infectious to quite a degree; feel-good au naturel, nary mawkish.

Picture of Antonia Achjadatenschutz

Antonia Achjadatenschutz

3Aug12

So colourful! On the visual level it is as rich as a bollywood film, but then it goes way deeper into a critical analysis of contemporary Indian upper class families and their dark sides.

Picture of Donna Cobourne

Donna Cobourne

28May12

This is film that reaches into the depths of my soul, it is still a favorite!!!

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Untitled

By Punit S. on July 17, 2009

Sincere Thanks from an Indian Sikh and a true Punjabi

Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaah !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can’t tell you how much thankful i am Criterion for releasing this…  read review

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