464 - Monsoon Wedding, India/United States, 2001. Dir. Mira Nair.

Monday, April 9, 2018

464 - Monsoon Wedding, India/United States, 2001.  Dir. Mira Nair.

The spirit of Punjabi.

Appetite for life.

These are the people of Delhi.  Work hard.  Party hard.  Live life.  Celebrate. 

Lalit Verma's daughter Aditi is getting married.  Five days from now.  And he is doing great.

If only he can survive.

His hired help, P. K. Dubey, a kind of maintenance man wedding planner, has powerful skills.  Skills such as sitting, talking, inviting others over, and asking Lalit for more money.  With Dubey on board, who needs a monsoon?  Frankly, the preparations might get done faster if he fires him. 

Lalit's daughter Aditi loves Vikram.  Loves him deeply.  Is eager to spend the rest of her life with him.

The only problem is that he is not the groom.

And he is already married.

But Aditi never did let a few minor inconveniences get in the way of going after her desires.

She visits Vikram the night before the wedding.

Maybe she can still win him.

They have a romantic evening.

In a parked car in an empty parking lot in the pouring rain.

With the police arriving.

The police pull them out of the parked car and into the pouring rain.

And drive off with Aditi, leaving Vikram behind.

That should turn out well.

Lalit and his wife Pimmi have arranged the marriage between Aditi and the groom Hemant.  He lives in Houston.  They have known each other two weeks.  She agreed to it because she was tired of waiting for Vikram.  And perhaps thought that would put pressure on him to leave his wife.

Or maybe she agreed to it because she really loves Hemant.  It is sometimes hard to know with Aditi.  She follows her heart, and her heart changes its mind.

Meanwhile, P. K. Doubey is falling in love with Alice, the domestic.

After all, if you are on the premises of a wedding, you may as well have a go at love yourself.

Lalit and Pimmi have a niece named Ria, who has been carrying around a secret for a long time.  One that involves her other uncle, Tej Puri, married to Lalit's sister Vijaya.

That secret will also come out the night before the wedding.

Because when you put on an extravagantly priced, elaborately planned family event and bring home all family members from all around the globe, then you may as well have as many things go wrongly as possible.

But have no fear.  This is only the beginning.  There is plenty more drama yet to come.

How will it all turn out?

And will they ever make it to the wedding?

Despite everything, the Verma family knows that it is never a bad time for someone to break into song and dance.

And they do.

Often.

If you have ever watched a movie musical and said, "As if people really do that," well, Mira Nair might yet convince you that people really do.

The joy of living.

Time for masti!