Monsoon Wedding Review for Non-Western Humanities

For the Bollywood film review I chose to watch Monsoon Wedding. Monsoon wedding was released in 2001 and directed by Mira Nair, who shot the movie over 30 days with a hand held camera. It is set in modern New Delhi and is presented as a romantic comedy, but Nair mixes it up with dramatic twists and turns that keeps the view interested and stimulated.   Nair put no special emphasis on lighting, special effects, and relied solely on the essence of the drama and the actor to tell a simple story spectacularly.
There is a big interesting cast of 68 actors who are mainly women.   The central figures in the movie are as follows:
Aditi, the bride-to-be, played by Vasundhara Das
Hermant, the groom-to-be, played by Parvin Dabas
Lait, the father of the groom, played by Naseerudin Shah
Pimmi, the mother of the bride, played by Lillete Dubey
Ria, cousin of the bride, played by Shefali Shah
The plot centers around the Aditi’s family preparing for her arranged marriage to a Houston business man she has only known for a few weeks. Family members from all over the world come to India for the wedding festivities.   There are many clashes of Western culture and Indian traditions throughout the film. The viewer is shown an example of this by seeing the bride-to-be prepare for her traditional arranged marriage while carrying on an affair with a married talk show host. As the viewer is guided through the four days of celebrating we go on an emotional journey with the family. We follow the cast through their highs of happiness, like the henna party, to the extreme lows, like when Ria accuses her Uncle Tej of sexually abusing her as a child. With bright color and exuberant song and dance, Monsoon Wedding shows that every family deals with issues no matter what culture.
I really enjoyed Monsoon Wedding. I found a lot of the scenes relatable to western viewers. One of my favorite scenes is in the beginning when Pimmi, the bride’s mother, is sneaking a cigarette in the bathroom before... [continues]

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