Session 10 Monsoon Wedding (Mira Nair, 2002)

 The reception of Monsoon Wedding, Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle, 2009) and Bollywood cinema consists in a big part in our fascination with foreign culture  Spectators are fascinated by costume, ritual, dance, the exoticism of customs

 In Monsoon Wedding, action takes place among the members of middle class in New Dehli  Spectators are interested in the way the representatives of this class live and whether trheir lifestyles correspond to the lifestyles of their own people

 The best way to make spectators like „the foreign” is to present it in the context of the rituals and customs which are more or less the same as in their own countries, i.e. Weddings, birthdays and funerals  Example: in Monsoon Wedding we witness a traditional Punjabi wedding celebration

 The presentation of the wedding concentrates on ritual, costume and music  It is full of joie de vivre  Riot of color  Roving camera  Beautiful sound and music

 The most attractive and seductive presentation of another culture  Seductive visual appeal of the film  The most positive presentation of characters despite the fact that a bride or bridegroom may be lured into the marriage, may hate the future spouse or may be coerced by parents into a pre-arranged marriage

 Acc. To Jenny Sharpe lies in the skill with which the film acquaints a Western audience with the sights and sounds of the new global India.  The crossover success of Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding (2001), whose characters speak English, Hindi, and Punjabi, lies in the skill with which the film acquaints a Western audience with the sights and sounds of the new global India.

 In foregrounding the clash of modernity and tradition, Nair makes explicit the anxieties about a national identity underlying the commercially successful films of Indian cinema, commonly known as Bollywood in reference to Bombay as the Hollywood of the Indian film industry

 A hybrid form from its inception, Bombay cinema reworked the melodrama, musical, slapstick comedy, and gangster genres of the classic Hollywood era, by infusing them with Hindu epic plots, Orientalist exoticism, and the visual and aural overload of Indian culture to create a new aesthetic style.

 Mira Nair, a filmmaker living in North America, has been born in India, educated at Dehli University and at Harvard  She is a renown filmmaker awarded for  1991Mississippi MasalaMississippi Masala  1988Salaam Bombay!Salaam Bombay!

 2001Monsoon WeddingMonsoon Wedding  1996Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love 1991Mississippi MasalaKama Sutra: A Tale of LoveMississippi Masala  1988Salaam Bombay!Salaam Bombay!  1987Children of a Desired Sex (TV documentary)Children of a Desired Sex

 This famous film showered with awards at the Oscar ceremony is a reworked version of Salaam Bombay by Mira Nair  An idealistic portrayal of the lives of homeless children in India  India and Bolywood seen from the perspective of a Western film director  / /

 1. Monsoon Wedding  2. Slumdog Millionaire  n6Q n6Q  RM_A&feature=relmfu RM_A&feature=relmfu

 Gender, Nation, and Globalization in Monsoon Wedding and Dilwale  Dulhania Le Jayenge  Sharpe, Jenny.  Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, Volume 6, Number 1,  2005, pp (Article)  Published by Indiana University Press

 Delhi Deluge of Colour and Movement in Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding, Senses of Cinema  Rose Capp December 29, 2001 Feature Articles, Issue 18 Rose CappFeature ArticlesIssue 18