neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Monsoon Wedding
	Mira Nair Naseeruddin Shah, Shefali Shetty, Vasundhara Das, Vijay Raaz 2002		Mira Nair — director of the acclaimed Indian film "Salaam Bombay!" and the American-set feature "Mississippi Masala" — returns to her native India for a lavishly textured, funny/sad/sweet dramady about a well-to-do New Delhi family preparing for a beloved daughter's arranged marriage. In contrast to most troubled weddings, it's a treat to be a guest at these nuptials. You get generational and cultural clashes of the modern and the traditional, a subplot about the bride-to-be's affair with a married man, an upstairs/downstairs love story involving the wedding planner and a servant girl, and, lurking over the celebration, a family secret that could ruin the big day. As the harried father of the bride, Naseeruddin Shah is at once proud, pompous and fretful. His headstrong daughter Aditi is well played by Vasundhara Das. But the dramatic weight of the film is borne by Shefali Shetty as cynical cousin Ria, Vijay Raaz as Dubey the oafish wedding planner and Tilotama Shome as Alice the maid.