'MONSOON WEDDING' (2001). INVITE, by Rashmi Vasudeva

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This Wednesday evening you are invited to take part in a lush, colourful big bad fat Indian wedding. Hooting, cheering, dancing, and booing is most welcome. Like a typical Indian dish, Mira Nair's acclaimed 2001 movie Monsoon Wedding has several ingredients - family intrigue, sexual politics, wry humour and quirky characters - which all slosh into each other to make quite a palatable treat. What's more, there is just that right sprinkling of Bollywood masala over it, so that despite its serious undertones, it is a true-blue feel-good Bollywood movie at heart.

Decidedly a film made with Indian sensibilities for an international audience, Monsoon Wedding chronicles all the little banters, anxieties, loves, hatreds and jealousies that spring up when families get together to celebrate a grand wedding. It is an honest film that explores the grey side of Indian family life and its eccentricities while taking care to be true to the genuinely warm culture and undercurrents of strong bonding that is typical of such large Indian (specifically Punjabi - North-Western and some parts of North Indian -) families.

It is monsoon and rains, which are a symbol of rejuvenation and hope in India, only add atmosphere to Delhi's many crowded alleys and huge bungalows - the setting for the movie. Members of an extended Punjabi family from all over the globe arrive to take part in the arranged marriage. Amidst hectic preparations, family skeletons fall out of the cupboard, old rivalries resurface and new loves are discovered. All in the span of a week or so. The skillful director has managed to extract realistic performances from all the artists, especially veterans like Naseeruddin Shah, who plays the father of the bride, to the crude but adorable marigold-munching wedding contractor P. K. Dubey, played superbly by Vijay Raaz.

The vitality of Indian weddings and the live-life-kingsize philosophy associated with the Punjabi race is portrayed quite naturally and they are juxtaposed with some ugly secrets that indeed might be discovered in any family. And that really is the secret of this movie's success. It manages to draw in the audience right from the start and makes you feel part of the proceedings. Plus, the music is extremely hummable.

So come along to the wedding this Wednesday and be sure to do the Balle! Balle!

MONSOON WEDDING, by Mira Nair (2001)

November 18, 4pm

Lille Auditorium (Room 234)

Danish School of Journalism