A fresh, less conventional take on the Hindi wedding film, the most interesting thing about Monsoon Wedding is also the least. What could have been bold statements about class difference, sexism and arranged marriage, become very light statements. Whimpers and squeaks.
It’s the curse of thinking of your country as unique. Monsoon Wedding’s philosophy is summed up neatly in an early scene where a television debate is going on about, what else, Indian culture and Westernization, in which someone defends censorship, equates modernization to westernization to pornography, talks about the glorious Indian culture and their unique situation in the world and someone on the other side of the debate goes, simply, “What’s the problem?”.
Monsoon Wedding tries very hard to find the exact middle between these two thorny perspectives without realizing that both premises are fallacious to begin with. It’s like an Indian dilettante’s view of India (as opposed to the English dilettante’s view of India that is Slumdog Millionaire). It doesn’t just say, ‘so far but no further’, it self-consciously lays down the rules for India’s slow march forward.
Despite the problems I have with the film, the cinematography is pretty gorgeous and there are some touching moments, particularly between the two ‘lower class’ individuals who fall in love. Good entertainment if you disregard its pretensions to being anything else. 6/10
