Monsoon Wedding

Monsoon Wedding was the closing film at the 2001 Films from the South festival, after having won the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival earlier that fall. This intense family drama plays out in the heart of New Dehli and sees old Punjabi cultural values being challenged by the advent of the dot.com era.

A big, expensive wedding is about to take place, but the bride Aditi keeps a secret from her husband-to-be, and the arrival of friends and family from abroad puts tension relating to class, generation and gender on full display. Like clouds gathering in the sky during the monsoon, the film builds towards a climax that later is discharged in delight of the liberating rains.

Mira Nair (b. 1957) is one of India’s leading contemporary directors. She studied at the New Dehli University and at Harvard and started her film career as an actress before making documentary films. Her fiction debut Salaam Bombay! received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and won the Camera D’Or at Cannes.