Monsoon Wedding [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Mira Nair Mira Nair

Overview

Following up on her controversial erotic drama Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, Mira Nair directs this charming family drama about a very chaotic Indian wedding. Lalit Verma (Naseeruddin Shah) is a wealthy father who is trying to see that his daughter Aditi's wedding goes off without a hitch. Though familiar with Western ways, he has little patience with them and is dead set on seeing the nuptials done properly and traditionally. Disillusioned with her long time relationship with Vikram -- a man who is almost twice her age -- Aditi (Vasundhara Das) suddenly agrees to submit to an arranged marriage with Hemant, an engineer from Houston. Yet as the ceremony nears, she gets cold feet and returns to see her former lover -- even though it could spell disaster for everyone involved. Meanwhile, Aditi's comely 17-year-old cousin Ayesha is coming to terms with her blossoming sexuality and has her sights set on Rahul, another relative who is a college student in Australia. Then there is Rai -- also Aditi's cousin -- who has a shocking revelation to make. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto and Venice Film Festivals. At Venice, Monsoon Wedding won the prestigious Golden Lion award.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/20/2009
UPC:	0715515049214
Original Release:	2001
Rating:	R
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Language:	English
Time:	1:54:00
Sales rank:	4,604

Special Features

Audio commentary featuring Nair; New video interview with actor Naseeruddin Shah, Conducted by Nair; New Video interviews with Quinn and production designer Stephanie Carroll; Theatrical trailer; Seven short films, all with video introductions by the director; A booklet featuring essayist Pico Iyer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Naseeruddin Shah	Lalit
Lillete Dubey	Pimmi,Ayesha Verma
Shefali Shetty	Ria
Vijay Raaz	P.K.
Tilotama Shome	Alice,Actor
Vasundhara Das	Aditi
Parvin Dabas	Hemant
Kulbhushan Kharbanda	C.L.
Kamini Khanna	Shashi,Talk Show Assistant
Sameer Arya	Vikram Mehta
Kemaya Kidwai	Aliya Verma,Jibesh
Rajat Kapoor	Tej Puri,Shelly
Ishaan Nair	Varun Verma,Vandana,Leena,Golfer
Randeep Hooda	Rahul Chadha
Roshan Seth	Mohan Rai
Soni Razdan	Saroj Rai
Rahul Vohra	Uday Verma
Natasha Rastogi	Sona Verma
Vimla Bhushan	Veena Verma
Ira Pandey	Vijaya Puri
Dibyendu Bhattacharya	Lottery,Cop No. 2
Deepak Kumar Bandhu	Tameez-Ud-Din
Pankaj Jha	Yadav
Mohini Mathur	Old Mother
Sharda Desohras	P.K. Dube's Mother
Jas Arora	Umang Chadha
Rajiv Gupta	Cop No. 1
Rajeev Suri	Golfer
Rajeev Bal	Golfer
Raman Chawla	Talk Show Panelist No. 1
Milan Moudgill	Talk Show Panelist No. 2
Himani Dehlvi	Talk Show Panelist No. 3
Nishi Singh Bhadli	Dubbist
Motilal Khare	Sari Salesman
Paritosh Sand	Jai Chand
Ambar B. Capoor	Photographer
Renuka	Woman in the Rain
Inderjit Singh	Man in Foxtrotting Couple,Woman in Foxtrotting Couple,Tuppa Girl,Tuppa Girl
Madan Bala Sindhu	Featured Punjabi Singer
Rekha	Featured Solo Singer
Nilambari Chintamani	Tuppa Girl
Gita Chopra	Tuppa Girl,Tuppa Girl
Sabrina Dhawan	Tuppa Girl
Rimlu Gyani	Tuppa Girl
Mitva Krishen	Tuppa Girl
Jyotsana Laroiya	Tuppa Girl
Lavanya Prabhu	Tuppa Girl
Veetu Mehta	Tuppa Girl
Aparna Sarin	Tuppa Girl
Mychael Danna	Composer

Technical Credits

Sabrina Dhawan

Mira Nair	Director,Producer
Caroline Baron	Producer
Sabrina Dhawan	Screenwriter
Uma Da Cunha	Casting
Caroline Kaplan	Executive Producer
Jonathan Sehring	Executive Producer
Dileep Shankar	Casting
Loveleen Tandan	Casting

Editorial Reviews

The marriage of Indian culture and family drama make for gratifying entertainment in Monsoon Wedding, the art-house hit from director Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay!). The colorful story -- think reds and oranges -- concerns a high-strung father, Lalit (Naseeruddin Shah), planning the arranged marriage of his daughter Aditi (Vasundhara Das) amid a flurry of chaos and catharsis. The bride-to-be's feet are on the cold side, as she still isn't over her affair with a married man. Meanwhile, Adit's cousin Ria (Shefali Shetty) feels the stress of being older and unwed. With dashes of both Robert Altman and John Cassavetes, Nair deftly handles a hodgepodge of characters, while the docudrama feel of her active handheld camera lends realism to the proceedings. Much like Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet, Monsoon Wedding offers a glimpse of Eastern culture but also transcends it with universal family themes. Sublime touches of Bollywood sentimentality serve as the frosting on this multi-tiered cake. Especially delicious is the romantic subplot involving one the family's servants (Tilotama Shome) and the wedding planner (Vijay Raaz), who has a penchant for eating marigolds. Not quite a musical, but with a noticeably festive soundtrack, Monsoon Wedding is not only the perfect blending of Indian and American independent cinema but a sweet and emotionally honest story as well.

Barnes & Noble - Stuart Gazzo

Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding is a warm embrace of a movie, a bright splash of romance and familial feeling. From the explosion of color and music that marks the opening credits, Nair builds a sense of anticipation for the whirlwind of romantic comedy and drama that marks her film. Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Monsoon Wedding shares its cultural richness and sweep with her previous films. As in Salaam Bombay and Mississippi Masala, life seems to seep in from the edges of the frame. Sabrina Dhawan's script carries the Nair trademarks -- strong supporting characters, and a good ear for how people speak and interact. The script was further developed through intensive rehearsals with the cast and crew. The story is deceptively simple, but touches on issues of class, child abuse, and cultural difference, all in seamless deference to the drama. Assisted by a large and talented group of actors, including personal friends and family (for example, the filmmaker's own nephew, Ishaan Nair, plays the bride's younger brother, Varun), Nair has created a film of intimate detail and universal appeal. One standout in the cast is Vijay Raaz, who plays the buffoonish, but, as it turns out, shyly romantic, marigold-munching Dubei. Raaz manages to make this dual personality completely credible. There's a regrettable patness to the film's coda. But for the most part, Monsoon Wedding honestly captures the spirit of modern Delhi -- the mix of languages (English, Hindi, and Punjabi), the blend of traditional culture and modern technology, the proximity of upper and lower classes, and the influence of Bollywood movies on everyday life. It's not just a touching, funny, multi-layered drama, it's an exuberant love poem to a city and a culture in transition.

All Movie Guide - Josh Ralske

The old-world-meets-new mesh is incarnated in the movie's soundtrack, a joyful effusion of disco Bollywood that, by the end of Monsoon Wedding, sent my spirit soaring out of the theater.

Entertainment Weekly - Owen Gleiberman

1/2
Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding is one of those joyous films that leaps over national boundaries and celebrates universal human nature.

Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert