Monsoon Wedding 9.4/10

Bollywood is an ever increasing ever growing style of film that differs from American films. If you liked Slumdog Millionaire and are willing to drift even more from America then Monsoon Wedding is the best film you might want to get. It submerges the audience into the Indian culture immediately.

The movie is character driven story (but not nearly as much as Do the Right Thing). For many reasons this movie is not a difficult movie to watch at all. The storyline is about the arranged marriage between Aditi Verma (Vasundhara Das) and Hemant Rai (Parvin Dabas) and how Aditi struggles to want the marriage. At first the array and plethora of differing names might be confusing but the story eventually pans out into a well written screenplay. The true beauty of this movie is not the overall story but how the screenwriter and the rest of the camera crew allows the story to be told by not including the main characters.

Another storyline within the movie is the comic relief of Parabatlal Kanhaiyalal 'P.K.' Dubey (Vijay Raaz). He is the wedding planner for the Verma family. At first he turns out to be an arrogant man who's only on his cellphone. Then we see his goofy side when Alice (Tillotama Shome) shows up. The development from comic relief to a truly heartfelt mini-story (which still has some funny moments within it) is the beauty of both the writing and the mis en scene.

Although Monsoon Wedding is a dark romantic comedy the development of each character helps the audience to connect to each one. It doesn't feel dark but rather it's a colorful story full of laughing, crying, and anger. Each character has their own story and eventually they all come together for a final dance which if the audience loves other cultures will thoroughly enjoy.

I personally loved the movie. The beginning of the movie was a little confusing with all the names being thrown and the subtitles helped a lot. For some people subtitles retract from the movie but I don't really care about them much. Also what might throw some people off are the more edgy themes that go along with the movie (such as child abuse). Just remember to keep an open mind within this movie in terms of culture and also in terms of having a good time.

9.4/10