Analysis the film: monsoon wedding

Monsoon Wedding
Analysis:
Monsoon Wedding is Mira Nasir’s best film after Salaam Bombay that was released in 1988. The film is based on the upper-middle-class New Delhi in which, there is a family of professionals who are quite modern for the general style of living in New Delhi. Despite being Indians, members of the family usually communicate with one another in English. English is visualized as a symbol of civilization. It is said, “ Speak a little English and you become a cultivated family” (Nair). Apparently, they are quite satisfied with their lives and take pride in their modernistic way of living, though deep down, they are status-conscious, and upset. Monsoon season depicts their mood which is hot and humid. It can rain anytime. The family particularly relates to the Indian diaspora in which the children are scattered everywhere in Europe, America, Gulf and Australia. They adopt a mix of traditional and Western culture. The family celebrates the wedding of Aditi and Hermant.
The acting is marvelous. Nair does not make easy exposition which gives the audience a hard time judging relationships among various characters, though the contradictions of the world fascinate the audience right from the start of the movie. Most of the incidental fun in the movie originates in the acute observations like the women’s singing hen party. Another scene that is very funny yet embarrassing is the one in which the bride-to-be and her lover are caught by the police while the two are having back-seat sex with each other in the thunderous night. One subplot that particularly grabs the attention of the audience is that of the love affair of the wedding organizer and the servant girl. In contrast to these comic scenes, there are quite a lot of serious themes underlying the plot of the movie that include but are not limited to the themes of deracination, dislocation, and clinging to the same old ways in the blank consumer society as it often happens in the US. Then there is the wealthy Uncle Tej, whose financial generosity appeases the bride’s father and many others as well.
Uncle Tej first shows up at an engagement party. A niece who happens to be an orphan loves to study in US. Uncle Tej proposes to pay for her expenses, though the beneficiary sounds uneasy in her response. The audience gradually gets to learn that Uncle Tej is a pedophile whose depredations are overlooked by all because of his financial generosity. This puts a challenge in front of lalit, the bride’s father who is supposed to decide between covering-up the secrets or weaken himself financially by out-casting Uncle Tej. This is indeed, the moral cliffhanger in the story. The film relates perfectly to the contemporary politics in which people remain silent for personal gains. Nair has adopted a prudent approach in spinning it out till the story’s end, in which the core of the family gets together for a photograph at the wedding. All men wear pink turbans, and the film ends with the remarks of the photographer, “ What a lovely family.” (Nair).
Works Cited:
Nair, Mira, dir. Monsoon Wedding. 2002. Film.