Monsoon Wedding

An entertaining film from India about a wedding and all the chaos that goes along with it.

Monsoon Wedding is a mixed bag. The performances and costumes are great, but the script can be hard to follow and drags at times.

The performances are all excellent. Everyone feels authentic and at times you’ll feel like you’re watching a professionally shot wedding video. More importantly the characters emote universal emotions that allow Monsoon Wedding to transcend it’s Indian base and achieve universal appeal. This, coupled with the intimate visual style, makes the movie feel very honest and true.

The costumes are another high point. Though they may be strange to western audiences, they never feel alien or out of place; another result of director Mira Nair’s unique visual style.

The script does have problems though. With a large cast of family and friends, the relationships between the various members can be hard to follow at times. This, coupled with some long scenes, causes the movie to drag at points. Also the dialog shifts between English, Hindi, and Punjabi can be difficult for western audiences as they have to jump between subtitles and spoken English, sometimes mid-sentence.

Still it’s a good movie that grants an honest glimpse into a rarely explored culture.