Monsoon Wedding (spoilers)

Here are my thoughts (no specific argument or anything, just opening the topic for discussion)

I haven’t seen a thread on this movie yet, and I thought it was a terrific film!

Things I especially liked were:

  • the Robert Altman style of fast scenes with a lot of characters and a lot of chit-chat, where you have to pay close attention to what’s being said and what’s going on (much like an actual gathering), interspersed with slow, genuinely moving scenes with just a couple people.

  • the wonderful soundtrack! Definitely makes me interested in learning more about Indian Punjabi music, modern or not. My favorite track was “Aaj Mera Jee Karda” by Sukhwinder Singh, which played at the end credits, and during the montage scenes of the Delhi streets.

  • great characters, great story…

  • interesting class/ethnic commentary. I probably didn’t get all the nuances of it (since I am not Indian). Also, I believe there was more than one language being spoken. I think the wedding workers were speaking Hindi (local language of Delhi?) and the family spoke Punjabi, but I’m not sure. And there were Bengalis in there, too. Someone want to enlighten me on this?

  • my favorite characters: the kid who wanted to cook and dance, also PK Dubey, the “event manager”. Great facial expressions, etc.

  • Neha Dubey

I also really liked some of the slow motion Dubey-in-dreamland scenes, like the first one where Alice (?) collides with him and drops the glasses, then he eats the marigold.

I liked the dance scene at the end, enjoyable movie.

I really enjoyed it as well. My cousin and my SO’s sister are getting married this year, and I recommended that they both watch it. Somehow, after seeing all the preparations for that wedding, deciding who to make your flower girl doesn’t seem so bad.

Also, it was an arranged marriage, the couple hadn’t known each other, okay. But the bride was going to leave her family utterly and move to a foreign city (Houston, TX) with a man she barely knew? I dunno, if I were arranging my daughter’s marriage, I think I’d want it to be to that nice young man down the block, not to a complete stranger who’s going to take her out of the country. What if he turned out to be horrible? She’d be stuck in Houston with no way out!

I just saw this movie tonight and enjoyed it very much. I think it’s a movie you appreciate in repeated viewings–there’s so much going on.

I want to have an Indian style wedding, so colorful & joyful.

Can anyone recommend a good Indian music CD?

Yookeroo
One thing you could start out with is the Monsoon Wedding soundtrack. I still listen to the Ravi Shankar vinyl album I bought some 30 years ago.

I loved marigold-eating Dubey, but my favorite character was Ria, the cousin/sister.