Revisiting a definitive - 4

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Mira Nair's 2001 odyssey can best be summed up in her own lines when the film premiered; a movie which is a reality check on Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (a 1994 release from the Hindi film industry); Monsoon Wedding is not an easy film to make and with an ensemble cast with such heavyweights like Nasseruddin Shah, Shefali Shah, Vijay Raaz, Tillotama Shome, Lushin Dubey, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rajit Kapoor, Neha Dubey, Roshan Seth to name a few it really is indeed complex a film to make. Almost 80-85% of the scenes in the movie is showcased in context of marriage as a setting and that is where the scenes will always be populated. And Monsoon Wedding is gem to watch from hereon.  And the keen eye of Mira Nair is therefore to see. One can't help and comment on the fact that Mira's love for film is so pronounced and it shows frame after frame in Monsoon Wedding. 

For starters as I said earlier Monsoon Wedding has an extremely strong set of actors from Hindi cinema and pitching them all together meant a lot of workshop and rehearsals before even you hit the floor. Let's start from the top; Monsoon Wedding is virtually owned by two; Naseeruddin Shah and Vijay Raaz. These two characters literally light up the screen every time they enter. Vijay Raaz's characteristic easy going approach and his natural candour rubs off on everybody around him. Be it on Alice (a sweet Tillotama Shome) or on his workers engaged in the tent house work. But Vijay's brilliance comes out when he is is dejected arising from a misunderstanding that develops with Alice in the course of the film. His body language, his expressions and even the walk is a complete reversal to his usual self. Naseer's moments comes when he visits Shefali to convince her to come home after the subterfuge of the night before. It is a 4-5 minutes sequence and it looks simple as a scene but its made simple through the finesse that Naseer brings to the role. It is a beautiful and melancholic moment of the film.

In addition all the others (including a wooden Hooda) put up an extremely immersing performance that helps Monsoon Wedding through an extremely breezy narration. The other part of the film is an amazing look and feel to the film. The color Yellow and how the same kind of interweaves throughout is amazing. The marigold being symbolical to the context of the setting and how. Filmed with a largely foreign crew and being a production jointly between several countries the film is a film school subject, definitely. Take for instance the moments where the Ladies Sangeet takes place and the women are congregated to sing the topical songs; its a delight to watch the sequence. 

Monsoon Wedding's beauty is also in the Punjabi-yat of the film. So intricately woven into the sub-context and it takes Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Kamini Khanna to bring in those beautiful intertwining's to the plot. Starting with Kamini's character calling out her husband's name as C.L. (his screen name being C.L. Chadha) is a subtle subterfuge not so visible to the naked eye but the brilliance of Mira and Sabrina Dhawan (the writer comes out). There are many such moments and me staying in Delhi for the last 34 years has seen so much of it. But the best is the line where a certain characters expresses her desire to pursue creative writing course in the US and the typical Punjabi-fied response with affirmation to that; there is a lot of money in writing novels; perhaps best summed up. Its cute and so effervescent in its uncanny appeal. 

The celebration in the film is indeed joyous to see with the music playing a critical role. The range that Mira and team choose is indeed noteworthy. But the best; the cringeworthy Chunari Chunari number (from the original film Biwi No. 1) finds a zeitgeist moment in the film and that's where the song plays wonder to the situation. The film is a celebration of life and all things human as rightly said by the great Roger Ebert. 

It's on YouTube in India and US audience can see it on Amazon Prime. Go watch.          

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