In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Monsoon Wedding (2001): Dir: Mira Nair / Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Vasundhara Das, Lillete Dubey, Shefali Shetty, Vijay Raaz: Study of culture and tradition within the boundaries of one family as they prepare for a wedding. Naseeruddin Shah plays a father stressed and frustrated over wedding preparations. The yard is beautifully decorated with orange flowers and overwhelming trimmings, before being the subject of many guests in attendance. Shah's daughter is placed in an arranged marriage but she has a fling with an ex-boyfriend during a stormy night. The resolution of this is not only surprising but reasonable. Other characters include a sister who dances for an audience but cannot convince her boyfriend to involve himself. One man is a suspected paedophile. Every character is written in fine detail with fine acting performances by Shah, Vasundhara Das, Lillete Dubey, and Shefali Shetty. Vijay Razz plays a wedding planner who discovers romance when smitten during the rousing festivities. Stylish directing by Mira Nair who also made the steamy Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. Both films regard love and tradition but with this film Nair has a more solid story foundation that isn't based around sex. The film addresses culture and tradition clashed with emotion and deception resulting in a beautifully crafted film well worth attending. Score: 10 / 10

There was a time when this was so highly recommended it used to have to have a spot in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book, so I thought it had to be good, so of course I thought I'd find out, from director Mira Nair (Kama Sutra: A Story of Love). Basically the story is set in an upper-class part of India, where the Delhi-based Verma family are excited and getting ready for the arranged marriage of daughter Aditi (Vasundhara Das) to Houston based Hemant Rai (Parvin Dabas). Aditi's father Lalit (Naseeruddin Shah) is having some disagreements and squabbles with slacker wedding contractor Parabatlal Kanhaiyalal 'P.K.' Dubey (Vijay Raaz) who is running way behind schedule. Niece Ria (Shefali Shetty) is thinking about going to America to take up a new profession to get away from the abuse from her uncle, and Lalit's wife Pimmi (Lillete Dubey) has taken up smoking in the bathroom. Aditi's brother Varun (Ishaan Nair) longs to be a chef and not obeying the traditions of his religion, including becoming homosexual, and one the youngest relative Ayesha (Neha Dubey) is flirting with the bride's cousin Rahul Chadha (Randeep Hooda) from Melbourne. While all the final preparations are being made, and the guests start arriving from all over India, Australia and America, Aditi is nervous since she has been having an affair with her married ex-boss Vikram Mehta (Sameer Arya). She does get to know Hemant better before they are due to get married, but she is worried she will be disloyal to him, and she does tell him the truth before the wedding, which would probably explain their faces at the end. I was really intrigued with he subplot story of contractor P.K. falling in love with family maid Alice (Tillotama Shome), and I was really happy when they got married in the end too. Also starring Kulbhushan Kharbanda as C.L. Chadha, Kamini Khanna as Shashi Chadha, Rajat Kapoor as Tej Puri and Roshan Seth as Mohan Rai. Made with the help of both Bollywood and Hollywood, it is a likable film with a great ensemble cast, wonderful costumes, brilliant use of colours, and great Indian music for dances and stuff, all in all a very watchable comedy drama. It was nominated the BAFTA for Best Film not in the English Language, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, there was more English than Hindi? It was number 74 on The 100 Greatest Tearjerkers. Very good!

The obvious precedent for 'Monsoon Wedding' is Robert Altman's 'A Wedding'; both are sprawling, multi-character films about the wedding of two wealthy, but culturally distinct families. But in spite of a sub-plot focused on child abuse, 'Monsoon Wedding' lacks the satirical, bleak edge of its predecessor: the rich, it seems to say, are just the people we ourselves would like to be. Given that the film is set in India, a society of immense inequality of wealth, I found its straightforward celebration of the lives of the affluent a little odd; and hard to care for its characters who seemed to own lives free of the constraints that not only bind most people, but which are also the stuff of real drama. The movie is lively, colourful, and musical; but I found it hard to really care.

This movie is too Indian. Anyone who has had an Indian upbringing will really adore this movie. Overall, it depicts a typical ostentatious Indian wedding with all its nuts and bolts and the fun of the entire family coming together in the occasion. There are other little little things that are so common in an Indian context, like for example, the tense father of the bride Lalit Verma (Naseeruddin Shah) and the way he rebukes Dubey (the event manager), the bonding between the cousins, the "eve-teasing" of Ria when she tries an ice cream, Lalit's affection for Ria even though she is only the daughter of his elder brother is too adorable! I think this is Mira Nair's best work thus far.The movie revolves around the wedding of the only daughter Aditi of an Indian family living in New Delhi. An Indian born US based IIT graduate engineer is chosen as the groom through the traditional Indian custom of arranged marriages. Behind this main theme, there are several subplots, such as Aditi's continuing relationship with her (married) ex-boss, the event manager (more like a wedding planner) Dubey falling in love with the house maid Alice (Tilottoma Shome), Aditi's elder sister's unpleasant experiences with her uncle during her childhood etc. The amazing about this movie though is that all these subplots somehow come to a clean conclusion at the end of the movie. I would highly recommend this movie to all my Indian buddies.