A single knot breaks apart all previous ties and bonds with expectations and uncertainties, love and aspirations of the new home, the bride bids farewell to her childhood. A story of many, told a hundred times but still is as fresh as a new bud or the dew drops and the first shower of the monsoon.
Monsoon Wedding depicts the story of the household of Lalit and Pimpi Verma and their daughter, Aditi's wedding. The film provides an entrance to the present urban Indian society intermingling with age-old tradition and rituals. Beautifully captures the hype, exorbitant and flamboyant attributes of the upper-class urban society. It provides a walk-through for the audiences through the four-day celebration of the wedding of the daughter in a Punjabi household.
The audiences are made a part of the sagai, the mehndi, sangeet and finally the shadi occasions. The tensions of the parents, specially the father, the shopping extravaganza of the ladies of the household, the close knit family that comes together after a long gap to celebrate the occasion of this wedding. Elaborate depiction of dance, music, food and drink all add to the charm of the film.
The story although concerned about Aditi's wedding has several small plots within it that are beautifully interwoven to catapult it to a different height. These individual plots picturizes the modern society, its uncertainties, family disillusionment, loneliness, child abuse and above all love that exists irrespective of age, caste, color or creed.
Aditi's affair with her ex-boss a married man and her mental conflict on getting married to Hemant Rai an NRI, she is so puzzled that two days before the wedding she runs away to her lover just to find how indifferent he is when it comes to accepting responsibilities. She confides in her would be groom and realizes that love is more than physical bonding and more of trust and understanding each other.
Also among the hyped celebration and the raindrops love blooms between Alice, the household maid and P K Dubey the tent contractor, two lonely soles find each other to caress for lifelong.
Ria, Aditi's cousin an unmarried aspiring writer with a secret that she had suppressed all her childhood spills it out to protect another little soul of the family, Aliya, from getting abused by the most respected family member, Tej Puri. Ria's confrontation with Tej Puri and her family, leads Lalit Verma to expel all relations with Tej Bhaisaab who had been the family mentor after the demise of Lalit's elder brother - Ria's father.
The conflict within the husband and wife (Lalit and Pimpi) over Varun their son, who is to be sent off to a boarding school to be molded to a bold man all to Varun's displeasure.
Lalit's helplessness in front of his Golf Club friends for seeking help in getting more cash for the wedding expenses.
All these individual plots woven together to give the main drama a touch of creative excellence. By the end of the movie the celebration ends but the treat to the mind and eyes remains long after. A movie that sets one's feet go tapping to the beats of Nach le..
Cast and crew: A film from Mira Nair's stables with Naseeruddin Shah and Lillette Dubey gelling extremely well as husband and wife in their roles as Mr and Mrs. Lalit Verma. The rest of the cast comprised of Vasundhra Das as Aditi, Shefali Shetty as Ria, also had Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Sony Razdan, Roshan Seth and Parvin Dabas as Hemant Rai with many other excellent actors who played their parts to the minuteness of their characters.
Music: Although the film didn't have the typical Bollywood style music and dance around the trees but it did have enough music to keep the audiences glued to their seats and experience the wedding celebration. Anu Malik share the accolades for the music retreat.
Scenes - my favorite:
Lalit Verma's confrontation with Dubey on tent and decoration and Dubey's expressions that ends with Dubey chewing Marygold flowers.
Alice's encounters with Dubey. Their first encounter that leads to breaking of tea glasses and also a tear in Dubey's heart. Alice asking Dubey and party for water, with a backdrop music of 'ankhon hi ankhon mein ishara ho gaya..'. Dubey and Alice in Kitchen, Dubey hands over his card to Alice. Dubey watching Alice put on her mistresses ornaments and making poses in front of the mirror. Dubey's love for Alice increases manifolds. Last Dubey presenting Alice with a Marygold heart and formally proposing her.
Aditi confides on Hemant and tells him about her ex-affair and the expressions and reactions of both the characters. This basically leads to getting these two closer to each other.
Ria's outburst on Tej Puri that spills over a age old secret that she had suppressed all her childhood to the shock of the family.
Lalit's encounter with Ria after the incident and Lalit consoles Ria and tells her about his helplessness in dealing with the situation. This is one of the best scenes in the film.
Ria's tears in front of her father's photograph, where she silently tells her father how much she misses him and Lalit realizing the bitterness and pain Ria is going through finally ask Tej Puri and his sister to leave his household, a very bold decision that even Ria couldn't believe to hear.
Apart from these the scenes showcasing wedding celebrations are worth watching.
Indian wedding: Although this film showcases a wedding exceptionally it is not all about Indian wedding. India being a country of diversities the wedding traditions varies from west to east and from north to south, irrespective of religion. Even in Hindu marriages the celebration and rituals change as we move from one part of the country to the other. The flamboyant celebrations in the west of India are slowly replaced by a more sophisticated and dull sequences in the east. The loud music and dance extravaganza fades away as we move east, where the rituals are a bit different, although there are wedding songs and dances but they have been long forgotten or lost in the transition from tradition to urban societal changes.
Like in Calcutta the rituals have made way to signatures and Registry Wedding have gained popularity. In other religions wedding rituals vary with custom and time but what remains common through out is the heart rendering tears that the bride leaves her parent's household, keeping aside all her childhood belongings and dreams.
Many a times I have wondered why at all a girl have to quit her home and move to a new place why can't it be reversed. Who had made this tradition and why was it made so? May be long - long time back when man had built the concept of a home and place for shelter the men-folk might have gathered the ingredients of building a house and might have constructed the four walls and the roof, the women must have then moved to this house and thus the convention of women going to her husband's place have come into existence.
Many issues and questions like dowry and paternal property still remains unquestioned and this is not the right place to spill them. But definitely like to mention that the celebration and the happiness of the wedding ceremony should not fade away within days of the marriage. The celebration should not make way to tears, torture and harassment for either parts of the family. The honeymoon should continue for the life long.
Comments requested.
Paromita Dey
