"Monsoon Wedding" Review

The Indian movie, Monsoon Wedding, was decent. I really liked all the touches of Indian culture that ran throughout. I have seen a couple of programs about Indian wedding ceremonies, so I understood some of the things they were doing. Such as, painting the bride’s hands with henna, the marigolds, wedding garlands, and that there are three sections of the ceremony. However, I do think that if I did not know the background of the rituals, I would still have understood the movie.

I found the father’s personality especially interesting in that he tried to maintain Indian traditions and keep up his ideal nuclear family. This can be seen in the arranged marriage, keeping the marriage tent brightly colored, etc. It almost seemed like he was lying to himself about all the personality flaws of his family and when he did find out he almost seemed to ignore them; until the end that is. He seemed to ignore his wife’s smoking and his son’s flamboyant tendencies. He did not really seem to know about his niece’s flirtatious nature or his daughter’s relationship with a married man. I was worried that the father would not do anything when Ria brought the pedophiliac tendencies of the older relative to light. That is a very touchy subject for me. Luckily, Lalit did actually do something.

I really appreciated that Hemant forgave Aditi for her promiscuity; however, I do not know how realistic it was.

Some of my favorite parts were the awkward interactions between the servant girl, Alice and the wedding coordinator, P.K. Dubey. I am very glad they ended up happy and together. I thought his obsession with eating marigolds was weird though.

Overall, I liked it.