Monsoon Wedding (2001) - The Criterion Collection

Synopsis

Cultures and families clash in Mira Nair’s exuberant Monsoon Wedding, a mix of comedy and chaotic melodrama concerning the preparations for the arranged marriage of a modern upper-middle-class Indian family’s only daughter, Aditi. Of course there are hitches—Aditi has been having an affair with a married TV host; she’s never met her husband to be, who lives in Houston; the wedding has worsened her father’s hidden financial troubles; even the wedding planner has become a nervous wreck—as well as buried family secrets. But Nair’s celebration is ultimately joyful and cathartic: a love song to her home city of Delhi and her own Punjabi family.

Cast

Lalit Verma	Naseeruddin Shah
Pimmi Verma	Lillete Dubey
Ria Verma	Shefali Shetty
Parabatlal Kanhaiyalal “P. K.” Dubey	Vijay Raaz
Alice	Tillotama Shome
Aditi Verma	Vasundhara Das
Hemant Rai	Parvin Dabas

Credits

Director	Mira Nair
Producers	Caroline Baron and Mira Nair
Screenplay	Sabrina Dhawan
Cinematography	Declan Quinn
Executive producers	Jonathan Sehring and Caroline Kaplan
Associate producer	Robyn Aronstam
Editing	Allyson C. Johnson
Production Design	Stephanie Carroll
Costume design	Arjun Bhasin
Line producers	Shernaz Italia and Freny Khodaiji
Music	Mychael Danna

Disc Features

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director Mira Nair and director of photography Declan Quinn (with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
Audio commentary featuring Nair
Nair’s short documentaries So Far from India (1983), India Cabaret (1985), and The Laughing Club of India (2001), featuring video introductions by the director
Nair’s short fiction films The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat (1993), 11’09"01—September 11 (Segment: “India”) (2002), Migration (2007), and How Can It Be? (2008), featuring video introductions by the director
New video interview with actor Naseeruddin Shah, conducted by Nair
New video interviews with Quinn and production designer Stephanie Carroll
Theatrical trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by critic and travel writer Pico Iyer

From the Current

’TIS THE SEASON

Nov 3, 2009

The term holiday movie doesn’t have to conjure Christmas carols or miracles at Macy’s. Case in point: the personal, even skewed, films chosen by a few filmmakers as their holiday favorites for a seasonal http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/movies/01favorites.html?_r=1& . . .