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When this film scooped the Golden Lion Award at Venice, it was greeted with surprise and consternation. Surely this low budget, shot-in-a-month, love song to India wasn't batting its weight with the more prestigious work of the world's great and good? But Monsoon Wedding is that rare film with enough 'arty' pretensions to satisfy the more high-brow critics and enough old-fashioned story-telling to appeal to the widest audience.
Nair's track record - award-wining documentaries, an Oscar nomination for her debut feature Salaam Bombay - promises great things. Monsoon Wedding delivers in the best possible sense. Many directors struggle with balancing stories of multiple casts, but Nair manages to switch between them with exactly the right pacing. No couple is absent from the screen long enough to be missed and no character outstays their welcome. In fact, all are so real, to admit their acting talents would be to break the spell.
Even in scenes where everyone is present, the technique of filming with hand-held camera allows you to switch between faces as effortlessly as if you were turning your head as you walked into the room. No nuance is missed. Every important facial expression and revealing reaction is there. Sometimes these are played out as repeated frames, capturing another's viewpoint in momentary flashes - the second that they fall in love, the instant they notice something new in the family circle.
Although there are no Bollywood musical numbers, the influences are still here. Bright colours, soaring music and exuberant dancing at feast times represent the traditional views of what's to be found in the Punjabi culture. But scratch the surface and there's much more. Key characters such as the in-coming Australian and Americans are our guides as they discover their traditional expectations confounded by knowledge of affairs, failing businesses and very modern views on life.
Any Good?
An optimistic and luscious film, absorbing and at times so intimate you'll feel like an invisible guest at the wedding itself. Dhawan has created a story that shows modern India in its best light and Nair relishes bringing every frame of that tale to the screen in a fresh and original way.
(4 stars)
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