Monsoon Wedding is a film directed by Mira Nair and written by Sabrina Dhawan, which depicts romantic entanglements during a traditional Punjabi wedding in Delhi.

Writer Sabrina Dhawan wrote the first draft of the screenplay in a week while she was at Columbia University's MFA film program. Monsoon Wedding earned just above $30 million at the box office. Although it is set entirely in New Delhi, the film was an international co-production between companies in India, the United States, Italy, France, and Germany. The film won the Golden Lion award and received a Golden Globe Award nomination.

Plot

The film's central story concerns a father, Lalit Verma (Naseeruddin Shah), who is trying to organize an enormous, chaotic, and expensive wedding for his daughter, for whom he has arranged a marriage with a man she has known for only a few weeks (Parvin Dabas as Hemant Rai). As so often happens in Mira Nair's beloved Punjabi culture, such a wedding means that, for one of the few times each generation, the whole family comes together from all corners of the globe including India, Australia and America.

The bride, Aditi Verma (Vasundhara Das), is nervous as she has been having an affair with her married ex-boss Vikram (Sameer Arya). The film also includes several subplots: Ria Verma (Shefali Shetty), a cousin of the bride, was sexually abused by her uncle, Lalit's brother-in-law and the family's patriarch, some years earlier and finally speaks out to prevent his abuse of her younger cousin, Aliyah. The wedding contractor PK Dubey (Vijay Raaz) falls in love with the family's maid, Alice (Tillotama Shome). The bride's brother, Varun, struggles with his father's disapproval of his longing to be a chef, and his angst at Varun's lack of conventional Indian masculine characteristics, possibly stemming from a struggle to come to terms with the boy's implied homosexuality. Ayesha (Neha Dubey), the youngest marriageable relative of the bride, flirts with Aditi's cousin Rahul (Randeep Hooda), who has just returned from Melbourne. This is all set within the four days preceding the wedding, predominantly at the Verma's house.

Cast

• Naseeruddin Shah as Lalit Verma
• Lilette Dubey as Pimmi Verma
• Shefali Shah as Ria Verma
• Vijay Raaz as Parabatlal Kanhaiyalal 'P.K.' Dubey
• Tillotama Shome as Alice
• Vasundhara Das as Aditi Verma
• Parvin Dabas as Hemant Rai
• Kulbhushan Kharbanda as C.L. Chadha
• Rajat Kapoor as Tej Puri
• Randeep Hooda as Rahul Chadha
• Roshan Seth as Mohan Rai
• Soni Razdan as Saroj Rai

Soundtrack

The soundtrack includes a qawwali by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, a ghazal by Farida Khanum, a Punjabi song by Sukhwinder Singh, an old Indian song by Rafi, a folk dance song.The film includes a Urdu ghazal, Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo (Don't Be So Stubborn About Leaving Today) sung by Pakistani artist Farida Khanum.

• ^(*) Originally featured in the Hindi film Loafer (1973)
• ^(**) Originally featured in the Hindi film Biwi No.1 (1999)

Awards

The movie won the Golden Lion, the highest prize at the Venice Film Festival. Mira Nair was the second Indian (after Satyajit Ray for Aparajito) to receive this honour.

Won

• British Independent Film Award for Best Foreign Language Film
• Canberra International Film Festival - Audience Award (Mira Nair)
• Independent Spirit Awards - Producers Award (Caroline Baron)
• Venice Film Festival - Golden Lion (Mira Nair)
• Venice Film Festival - Laterna Magica Prize (Mira Nair)

Nominated

• BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film (Caroline Baron, Mira Nair)
• Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film
• Chlotrudis Award for Best Cast
• Chlotrudis Award for Best Director (Mira Nair)
• European Film Award for Best Non-European Film (Mira Nair)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film
• Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Foreign Language Film
• Satellite Award for Best Foreign Language Film

References

External links

• Review of Monsoon Wedding