MONSOON WEDDING - Thoughtful Sentiment

Directed by Mira Nair & written by Sabrina Dhawan, MONSOON WEDDING (2001) is a colorful (both visually & thematically) celebration of Indian culture & family. When all is said & done, MW is feel-good sort of film. Worlds collide - the traditional & the contemporary, men & women spar & love, happiness mixes with sorrow, thoughts about the past intertwine with hopes for the future, etc etc etc. The standard faire of a sentimental family drama - irrespective of the culture. And - of course - all ends happily.

Yet in the midst of all of this predictableness are two unique & thoughtful plot lines involving women. The first involves the bride of this modern-day arranged marriage. Yes - she is following in the paths of many bartered brides before, HOWEVER unlike the virginal, shy & expectant brides of arranged marriages of days gone by, she has a steamy past that involves a love affair with a married man - a man for whom she still harbors feelings. As a result - her arranged husband must cope with the fact that his traditionally assigned bride is, well, a woman of the modern world. A woman who has not been spending her life waiting for an arranged husband to come along & initiate her into the desires of the heart & body. No. She has figured this out all on her own.

And then there is her cousin - a young woman who has no desire to get married but wants to rather pursue her education. She - it is discovered - was once sexually molested by a revered elder family member who has arrived in town for the wedding. When the past is at first revealed, she is asked to swallow her pain & indignation for the good of the family & its unity. She agrees. However, in the end, her uncle sends the offending man packing - dismissing him from the family in favor of his niece. Yes - her honor is "saved" by a man - but it is still an interesting moment - because the man who saves her is the same man who pleaded with her to keep her peace for the sake of his family. He learns to value his niece over a male head of the family tree.

In fact - this man - the father of the bride - is shown throughout the film to be not only loving but VALUING of his daughter & his niece. There are moments in the film when the Indian cultural value placed on sons over daughters is emphasized; therefore, this man's valuing of these young women not just as females to be bartered & traded but as individuals is all the more telling.

Such traditional patriarchal notions are further heightened, thrown into sharp relief, by a subplot involving a servant woman & her love affair. Reinforcing MW's idea of Indian women coming into their own, this young woman's love affair involves the equal playing out of both female & male desire.

In the end - the wedding unites all - or almost all. The modern arranged couple dons the attire of tradition. An arranged marriage on modern terms, as it were. A sentimental, romantic ending - a bit hokey - but it works.

Ironically - Nair & Dhawan ultimately manage to romanticize the tradition of arranged marriages not by implying that the tradition of forcing marital bonds has ever often resulted in true romance or love, BUT by conversely implying that the tradition perhaps can involve these qualities if the two "forced" partners are fully realized individuals who are not ultimately forced at all. Did that make sense?

[Note: as with many films I write about - I was acutely aware of the fact that I am a western woman as I wrote this post]