Monsoon Wedding

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Monsoon Wedding
Directed by Mira Nair
Produced by Caroline Baron
Mira Nair
Written by Sabrina Dhawan
Starring Naseeruddin Shah
Lillete Dubey
Shefali Shah
Vasundhara Das
Vijay Raaz
Tillotama Shome
Music by Mychael Danna
Cinematography Declan Quinn
Editing by Allyson C. Johnson
Distributed by Mirabai Films, Inc. (USA)
Release date(s) Italy 30 August 2001
(première at Venice)
India 30 November 2001
(wide release)
France 12 December 2001
United States 22 February 2002
(limited release)
Germany 18 April 2002
Running time 114 min
Language English, Hindi
Budget 7,000,000 (INR)[1]
Gross revenue $30,787,356 [2]

Monsoon Wedding is a 2001 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.[citation needed] Monsoon Wedding earned just above $30 million at the box office.[2] 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.[3] The film won the Golden Lion award and received a Golden Globe Award nomination.

Contents

[edit] 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.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Soundtrack

The soundtrack[4] 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.

All music composed by Mychael Danna (except where listed).

# Title Music Length
1. "Feels Like Rain"     0:28
2. "Aaj Mera Jee Kardaa [Today My Heart Desires]" (Performed by Sukhwinder Singh) Sukhwinder Singh 5:11
3. "Baraat"     2:12
4. "Aaj Mausam Bada Beimann Hai (*) [Today The Weather Plays Tricks On Me]" (Performed by Mohammed Rafi) Laxmikant-Pyarelal (*) 3:20
5. "Your Good Name"     3:38
6. "Delhi.com"     1:41
7. "Fuse Box"     2:31
8. "Mehndi / Madhorama Pencha" (Performed by Madan Bala Sindhu)   3:26
9. "Banished"     0:52
10. "Good Indian Girls"     3:41
11. "Fabric / Aaja Savariya" (Performed by MIDIval Punditz)   3:01
12. "Allah Hoo" (Performed by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan)   4:39
13. "Hold Me, I'm Falling"     2:57
14. "Love and Marigolds"     2:45
15. "Chunari Chunari (**)" (Performed by Abhijeet and Anuradha Sriram) Anu Malik (**) 4:08
16. "Aaja Nachle" (Performed by Bally Sagoo feat. Hans Raj Hans) Bally Sagoo 3:40
17. "Aaj Mera Jee Kardaa - (Zimpala remix)"     4:56
18. "Fuse Box - Alex Kid's Dub Remix"     6:14
19. "Fuse Box - Julio Black Remix"     3:03
  • (*) Originally featured in the Hindi film Loafer (1973)
  • (**) Originally featured in the Hindi film Biwi No.1 (1999)

[edit] 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.

[edit] Won

[edit] Nominated

[edit] References

  1. ^ Business data for Monsoon Wedding from IMDb
  2. ^ a b http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=monsoonwedding.htm
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ http://www.buy.com/prod/60513257.html

[edit] External links

Awards
Preceded by
The Circle		 Golden Lion winner
2001		 Succeeded by
The Magdalene Sisters
v • d • e
Mira Nair
Directed films
Salaam Bombay!  (1988) • Mississippi Masala  (1991) • The Perez Family  (1995) • Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love  (1996) • My Own Country  (1998) • Monsoon Wedding  (2001) • Hysterical Blindness  (2002) • 11'09"01 September 11 (Section 'India')  (2002) • Vanity Fair  (2004) • The Namesake  (2007) • Amelia (2009)
Documentaries
Productions
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsoon_Wedding"