Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding tells the story of an Indian family’s tribulations surrounding a marriage. The film feels like a Hollywood film, but has a distinct Indian flavor.
The premise of the story surrounds Aditi’s marriage to Hermant, who has returned from the U.S. to marry her. Aditi painfully breaks off her ties with her old boyfriend, tells Hermant she’s been cheating on him, and then the two get married. This main plot line is what contributes to the Hollywood feel of the film. The story seems very common, and as such it generates little interest on its own because it is easy for an audience to anticipate what will occur next in the plot line. What makes the film interesting, however, are the more tense subplots which, rather than sitting right within the audience’s expectations, explore the extremes of the audience’s tolerance for unconditional love and disturbing abuse.
Much of the tension in Monsoon Wedding comes from the juxtaposition of Dubey’s love for Alice against the abuse of young girls in the family. This contrast, however, is reverse of class status. The lower class working citizens, despite their societal status, are seemingly much happier than the upper class citizens. The upper class citizens appear in a much more negative light because of the drama surrounding the wedding as well as the abuse of young girls in the family. Through this difference, Monsoon Wedding critiques the system of classes in India and hints towards the global theme that money and status do not equal happiness and purity.
Although Monsoon Wedding appeals to a wide audience because of its Hollywood feel, it shows a distinct (yet still common) theme in a way somewhat unique to India.
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3 comments:
I liked the way you interpreted the class issues and I agree that the movie's subplot are more crucial. While Dubey's alliance with Alice seems very romantic, Nair has not addressed the complex social issues that would oppose their marriage. I guess the Hollywood feel owes to the fact that the film was produced by American firms. Also, I dont know if you gathered the many stereotypes particularly the one about NRI's.
yeah, I think you're right. This film does seem like a Hollywood film in some ways, although lots of Indian culture is added to it. The strong love shown throughout the movie and some expected plots support your statement well. Good response.
I thought that it was an interesting point about the portrayal of the different social classes. The richer social classes even with all their wealth having all these problems, while the lower social class, not having all the luxuries have less problems. One scene I though that this was really apparent in was the contrast between Dubey's wedding, which included around five people versus Aditi's wedding.
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