Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1972 in DVD
• Brand: Universal Music Group
• Released on: 2002-09-24
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 115 minutes

Amazon.com
Monsoon Wedding is a return to form for Mira Nair, director of 1988's Salaam Bombay! Nair's gift for observation of the everyday and her love for her characters make for a delightful film, which spins a web of family relationships that knit and break during a wedding at a perfect pace. The excellent performances exceed the often stereotypical roles on offer (including the incomparable Nasiruddin Shah as the harassed father, Kulbhushan Kharbanda as the comic uncle, and Shefali Chaya as the orphaned cousin). Nair's sympathetic eye for the unnoticed and the harassed is at its best with the tender romance between the servant and Dube (Vijay Raaz), the marigold-munching, upwardly mobile wedding coordinator, who brings pathos and humor to the often unseen servant classes. The handheld camera gives a docudrama feel to this celebratory look at the upper-middle-class Hindu Punjabi joint family, while paying tribute to modern Indian public culture of music, television, and, of course, "Bollywood." --Rachel Dwyer

From The New Yorker
Mira Nair's new picture has been hailed as a feelgood spree, but it's better than that-a barely stable compound of the wounding, the confusing, and the appealing. The action takes place in Delhi, where a pair of middle-class parents (Lillete Dubey and Naseeruddin Shah) work themselves into a froth over the nuptials of their daughter (Vasundhara Das). Her marriage is, of course, arranged; for all the racket and buzz of the film's modernity, it finds time to make the suggestion-bewildering, perhaps, to audiences here-that from this archaic arrangement can spring an enduring love. The groom is flying in from Houston, Texas; another relative travels from Australia, and you brace yourself for the cultural collisions. The result is a comedy, but only just. India's stressful poise between orthodoxy and innovation (listen for the clash of peacock and cell phone) leads to a devastating family fracture that is only half-healed by the celebrations at the end. In English and Hindi, sometimes within a single conversation. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Received bootleg version of DVD
Have not watched this DVD because it is obviously a recorded version. Not an original DVD.

Ugly Ducklings Become Swans
It's good to read Mahatma Ghandi and go to a curry house afterward, because the movie is a very India take on coming of age, with curious weddings, breakoffs, and engagements on the side. Completely Victorious!

modern Shakespeare
This film has received enough positive reviews without my adding my 2 cents. However, I would like to make the point that this movie is closer to a Shakespearean comedy than any other modern film I've seen (although I don't watch films as often as some). Although the theme of incest is darker and more serious than the gender-bending found in some of Shakespeare's plays, it is of a kind with them, I believe. The bad guy is identified without a bloodthirsty revenge seen. The servants' subplot has about the same relation to the whole you would expect in Shakespeare. The humor is spontaneous and doesn't warp the characters, and at the end of the film, you feel you've watched something original that is affirmative, yet not manipulative. Highly recommended. I suppose the actual dialog won't appeal as much as the Bard's to those with a critical mindset, but for the rest of us who have just enjoyed ourselves, this film is a great experience.