Customer Reviews
The Real India - By: Peter Roxburgh, 24 Oct 2008 
As someone who grew up in India, I can say that this is an accurate portrayal of upper-middle class India.
If you want to move away from the usual pictures of India being ridden with poverty, or the nonsensical dancing of Bollywood movies, then please watch this movie. It will bring a much clearer & truer picture of what modern India is like.
As the other reviewers have suggested it, there is a flourish of colour & celebration. The music is also fantastic & the acting is also excellent.
Buy it, you will not be disappointed & you will have learnt a lot too!
Family, Love and Weddings in Contemporary India. - By: Penelope, 23 Dec 2007 Mira Nair delivers an interesting & insightful alternative to traditional Bollywood fare in `Monsoon Wedding'. Contemporary India is rendered in a humorous, insightful & touching manner, in a film that revolves around an affluent family's wedding preparations for their daughter. While tackling the influence of Western culture on India's younger generation & depicting their sexual relationships, Nair's film also has nods towards a more traditional India encapsulated in the alternative wedding of a maid/servant. Similarly `Monsoon Wedding' possesses alll the colour, vitality & music of any good Bollywood movie, while still satisfying a Western audience more used to love & sex depicted in a physical, rather than symbolic manner. This is an extremely touching film that embraces some presumably risqué issues for an Indian film, namely, adultery, sexual desire, & child abuse. However don't worry it alll comes good in the end with a wonderfully bold, colourful & musical ending when the guests dance with gusto & alll the aplomb of a Bollywood musical. One word of warning, I had to watch this film twice in order to fully appreciate its subtler aspects, & the dialogue that seems to flit between Indian languages (subtitled) & English can be difficult to follow. But persevere because this is an extremely rewarding experience.
Don'texpect a typical Bollywood movie - By: Jay, 15 Dec 2007 If you're expecting an "exotic India" kind of movie, you'd be better off not seeing it. This is a contemporary film, & it's made with love. Acting is terrific, & it becomes obvious that actors had so much synergy while working on the movie. Only a very cynical person wouldn't be emotionallly touched by the story & the characters. A great film to see with your significant other on a weekend. Warm fuzzy feelings alll the way!
Did the critics actually watch this movie? - By: Rocking Rococo, 31 Mar 2007 
I've seen so many 5 star reviews for this film, online, in magazines & newspapers - but I can't help feel like everyone's got it wrong!
I rented this movie on sky box office a while ago & was taken in by the reviews callling it light hearted, funny & beautiful to watch. But I found myself bored & confused by the whole movie. The storyline confused me right from the start, as did the characters & plot. Nothing much seemed to be happening throughout the movie.
Whatever the storyline, the director knows how to make a beautiful movie. The set, costumes & soundtrack do make it well worth watching if only for the cinematography - but that's about the only reason to give it a try.
Prepare to be bored!
Enjoyable, impressive cinematography, but a rather slight story - By: Triestino, 18 Feb 2007 
This is a most engrossing & enjoyable film, but one that is not without flaws. Monsoon Wedding, as the director explains in one of the DVD's "extra" tracks, is a celebration of the upper middle class urban Punjabi life style: energetic, ambitious, Westernized, noisy & earthy. Underlying the film is the tension between modernity & tradition in India today, a contrast that the director often makes explicit by switching from the sophistication of the wealthy family preparing for the wedding to the wonderful, ageless chaos of the Delhi streets. There are moments of ravishing cinematography - the scenes filmed in the rain are quite magnificently done, for example. The colours (the director throughout favours blocks of pastel shades) & the music are impressive, but not quite as spectacular as some reviewers have suggested, & some people may find the tale as a whole a frustratingly slight one. It is sometimes rather difficult to follow the English passages, & there are episodes of the plot (such as it is) that are a little unconvincing. The bride-to-be, for instance, switches overnight from a passionate affair with her lover, to an almost equallly passionate attachment to her fiancé, with an ease that rather beggars belief. These aspects apart, this is a fast-moving, watchable & memorable film, & one that is very much worth seeing.
