Monsoon Wedding (2001)

That was an excellent one.

It is a performances centric movie

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I cannot give it 9 or 10 probably because I am watching it in 2018, and by now a lot of films has been made on tantamount to the similar relationship problems. The story takes a leap from platitudinous Indian rom-com and delved as deep as knocking into issue of child molestation by a paedophilic uncle Tej. This kind of lowly acts takes place within the family surreptitiously in the name didactic lessons on kissing. The most exceptional relationship being shown was that of Parabatlal Kanhaiyalal Dubey, the cardinal of the tent fixer's crew and Alice the maid. Vijay Raaz and Tillotama Shome acted exceptionally well.

Families meet in Delhi for an arranged marriage between Aditi Verma (daughter of Lalit and Pimmi Verma) and Hemant Rai.PK Dubey is the lower class, foul-mouthed, wedding arranger who is interested in the maid, Alice. Lalit is having money trouble; this translates to slow payments to PK.Ria Verma is the unmarried cousin of Aditi, who was abused by Tej Puri when she was younger.Aditi decides to visit her old flame one last time. That does not work out well, and reminds one of the phrase, 'get a room.' The police were quite amused. Aditi tells Hemant about this. Oh, what a mistake. He tells her that they will just fit in Houston, Texas, where he currently works. He is not amused. He decides to go through with it, and I did not see any particular believable justification for that change of heart.At that point in the movie, I was ready to quit. Slow, boring, not engaging, no sympathetic characters, except perhaps Lalit and PK. Then it gets worse; the child molestation issue was not handled well.Happy ending, I guess. Things turned out well for PK.-----Scores------Cinematography: 7/10 Variable.Sound: 8/10 Good most of the time.Acting: 6/10 Cheers to Naseerruddin Shah (Lalit), Tillotama Shome (Alice), Vijay Raaz (PK). Thumbs down otherwise, particularly for the actors who played the bride and groom.Screenplay: 6/10 Neither engaging nor believable. The story is rather good, so I would blame the direction, plus poor choices for many of the acting roles.

It cannot be called a true Bollywood movie, but it's a true Indian movie, rich with human elements which can be felt by any person. Tradition vs Modern ways - it's the underlying element knitting the sub-plots together.Mira Nair's romantic dramedy 'Monsoon Wedding' has genuine likability value, filled with colour and energy. All the comedy, love, commentary on social issues, and drama are blended well with the music, dance and celebration. Mrs. Nair knows well how to delicately but gracefully deal with the human elements depicted in the movie. Declan Quinn's cinematography and Mychael Danna's score help us to be a part of the festivities.The characters are brutally real, relateable and charming. The unsure bride-to-be who still hasn't gotten over her past relationship, the completely occupied father-of-the-bride dealing with debts and responsibilities, the bored but committed mother trying to find meaning, the usually bad-tongued wedding planner trying to find love, the unmarried cousin still in pain from her childhood molestation trauma - all these and many such characters just fill the story with brimming honesty. The actors have done a brilliant job.

There was a time when this was so highly recommended it used to have to have a spot in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book, so I thought it had to be good, so of course I thought I'd find out, from director Mira Nair (Kama Sutra: A Story of Love). Basically the story is set in an upper-class part of India, where the Delhi-based Verma family are excited and getting ready for the arranged marriage of daughter Aditi (Vasundhara Das) to Houston based Hemant Rai (Parvin Dabas). Aditi's father Lalit (Naseeruddin Shah) is having some disagreements and squabbles with slacker wedding contractor Parabatlal Kanhaiyalal 'P.K.' Dubey (Vijay Raaz) who is running way behind schedule. Niece Ria (Shefali Shetty) is thinking about going to America to take up a new profession to get away from the abuse from her uncle, and Lalit's wife Pimmi (Lillete Dubey) has taken up smoking in the bathroom. Aditi's brother Varun (Ishaan Nair) longs to be a chef and not obeying the traditions of his religion, including becoming homosexual, and one the youngest relative Ayesha (Neha Dubey) is flirting with the bride's cousin Rahul Chadha (Randeep Hooda) from Melbourne. While all the final preparations are being made, and the guests start arriving from all over India, Australia and America, Aditi is nervous since she has been having an affair with her married ex-boss Vikram Mehta (Sameer Arya). She does get to know Hemant better before they are due to get married, but she is worried she will be disloyal to him, and she does tell him the truth before the wedding, which would probably explain their faces at the end. I was really intrigued with he subplot story of contractor P.K. falling in love with family maid Alice (Tillotama Shome), and I was really happy when they got married in the end too. Also starring Kulbhushan Kharbanda as C.L. Chadha, Kamini Khanna as Shashi Chadha, Rajat Kapoor as Tej Puri and Roshan Seth as Mohan Rai. Made with the help of both Bollywood and Hollywood, it is a likable film with a great ensemble cast, wonderful costumes, brilliant use of colours, and great Indian music for dances and stuff, all in all a very watchable comedy drama. It was nominated the BAFTA for Best Film not in the English Language, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, there was more English than Hindi? It was number 74 on The 100 Greatest Tearjerkers. Very good!