Marital masala

>> Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding is a mixed bag

by MATTHEW HAYS

Using the nuptials as a plotting device in screenwriting is always very risky. Though it may seem an obvious ploy—family, romance, ritual, the possibilities seem endless—in fact, many great filmmakers have failed to make solid movies involving weddings (think Altman in particular).

Mira Nair’s latest, Monsoon Wedding, involves one family’s struggle to get to their daughter’s big day. In this case, the marriage is arranged, and the groom is a Non-Resident Indian (NRI, the name given an Indian who lives abroad) who’s brought home to marry the beautiful lass (played by pop singer Vasundhara Das). Still in love with the married man she’s having an affair with, she’s not ready for her arranged bond. Meanwhile, various subplots unfold: the father of the bride (Naseeruddin Shah, in an excellent performance) struggles with the wedding planners and with the troubling thought that his effeminate son might be gay; one of the wedding planners flirts with another servant; and two hormone-infused teens fool around.
Nair knows her Bollywood material well, playing thoughtfully with the Indian melodrama form. As well, one can feel the filmmaker’s own cross-cultural status throughout Monsoon Wedding. As the family’s patriarch, Shah must deal with the terrible financial pressures of sending children to college and moralities that appear to be shifting in the throes of Western cultural imperialism. (Given the censorship Nair’s past films have faced in India, she must have felt this tug between cultures particularly acutely herself.) Add to that the earthy, verité shooting style of the film, and you’ve got a pleasing cultural hybrid.

Where Monsoon Wedding suffers is in its most blunt sub-plot, a not-poorly-handled-but-far-too-obvious deal involving incest. Yes, a horrific thought, but placed indelicately into the mix—enough to drag down the rest of this otherwise-subtle movie. Still, we don’t get nearly enough Indian movies in these parts, so Monsoon Wedding, while not the greatest movie I’ve ever seen, was still an enjoyable diversion. :

Monsoon Wedding opens Friday, March 1