Updated 5 November 2006
English 212, Section 3: World Cinema
Week 10: 30 October 2006
Professor: Don Larsson
6:00-6:45 “Bollywood” and Mira Nair
6:45-6:55 Break
6:55-8:50 View Monsoon Wedding
8:50-9:30 Discuss Monsoon Wedding
“Bollywood”
§ Indian filmmaking develops under British rule as early as 1913
§ Most of industry based in Bombay (now Mumbai), originally studio system that dissolves after World War II and independence
o Devotional/”mythological” (Hindu religious themes)
o Social commentary (caste, women’s roles, economic struggle, etc.)
o Epic melodrama
o Historical
§ Popularity of Indian films grows due to lack of television in much of India, and (more recently) rise of international Indian communities in southeast Asia, Australia, east Africa, U.K., U.S., and Canada
§ Newer films often show Western influences: plot structures (TV series, popular U.S. films), settings in U.S., U.K., etc. and changes in Indian culture, especially social and economic developments
§ Film industry struggling even while gaining new respect and popularity in West
§ Lagaan/Land Tax (2001)—nominated for Best Foreign Film Oscar
§ Director Shekhar Kapur: The Bandit Queen, Elizabeth, The Four Feathers
§ Influence on Western directors: Baz Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge
“Masala” (Indian spice mixture) films
§ Combines drama, comedy, music, dance, etc.
§ “Hindustani” (mixture of Hindi and Urdu) is dominant language but often subtitled, dialogue often mixes elements of other languages (Tamil, English)
§ Highly-developed star system
§ Strong production values in setting, costume, etc.
§ Highly formulaic: “a star, six songs, three dances” (derives from popular 19th-century theatre formats)
§ Songs usually dubbed in by professional singers
§ Despite romantic themes, strong prohibitions on depicting sexuality, including kissing
Monsoon Wedding and Mira Nair
“A calling card of what’s happening in India now”
--Mira Nair
§ Not typical “Bollywood,” although draws strongly on Bollywood conventions
§ Filmed in Delhi, independent production, relatively low budget, style derives from documentary traditions
Mira Nair
§ Upper middle-class background
§ College at University of Delhi and Harvard
§ Started as actress, then became documentary director
§ Documentary background still influences much of work
§ International scope to different films
o Salaam Bombay! (1988)
o Mississippi Masala (1991)
o Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996)
o Vanity Fair (2004)
o The Namesake (2006)
Monsoon Wedding (India, 2001): Director: Mira Nair; Script: Sabrina Dhawan; Cinematography: Declan Quinn; Editor: Allyson C. Johnson; Music: Mychael Danna
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah (Lalit, the father); Lillete Dubey (Parma, the daughter about to be married); Shefali Shetty (Ria, Parma’s cousin, raised as a stepdaughter by Lalit and his wife); Vijay Raz (P.K. Dubey, the wedding planner); Tiletama Shome (Alice, the family maid); Parvan Dabas (Hemant, the intended bridegroom); Sameer Arya (Vikram Vehta, Parma’s married lover); Ishan Nair (Verun, Parma’s young brother); Rajat Kapoor (Uncle Tej)
Questions to think about:
1. How does the film deal with the tensions between arranged marriages and love affairs?
2. How are differences in economic status and caste dealt with?
3. What are the different conflicts and tensions within the family? How are they resolved?
4. What is the role of the music and dancing? How are they integrated into the narrative?
5. What does this film reveal about “what’s happening in India now”?
Discussion Summary:
Although Monsoon Wedding was often spoken of by critics as being a kind of “Bollywood” musical, the film is actually a relatively low-budget independent film that shows just as strong a legacy of realist moviemaking, not unlike The World of Apu in some ways. Unlike a true Bollywood film like Lagaan, there are no established musical stars, the settings are mostly filmed on location in Delhi in central India, not Bombay/Mumbai, and the music in the song and dance numbers is actually diegetic (having a source in the “story world” of the film, not “added over” as musical accompaniment in most musicals—Indian or American—is). The musical numbers are usually being lip-synched by the characters from pre-recorded sources and reflect the popularity of Bollywood musicals but also popular music in general for the young people of the household.
The theme of a young couple finding love in a planned marriage is not an unusual one for a musical, but what is unusual is the level of realism that runs through the story. While traditional Indian films have been very prudish about physical sex, even forbidding kissing on the screen, we see Parma as a sexually active young woman who has gotten into a relationship with a married man. She has to come terms with her own hopes and disappointments about this relationship, while her intended groom, Hemant, has to learn to adjust to the fact that his bride has just been sleeping with another man. At the same time, we have the growing relationship between Dubey and Alice, which is threatened by the accusations of Dubey’s coworkers against Alice, a point reinforced by her apparent caste status (which is why she is also apparently a Christian, an appealing religious choice for someone of lower caste).
In a regular Bollywood musical, some of these themes would never be raised, but Nair’s film also concedes to the fact that this is a comedy with a happy ending. Alice and Dubey are reconciled and they join with Parma and Hemant in a kind of double wedding for the day. Even the tensions between the parents and Parma’s young brother Verun seem to have been resolved for the moment.
The one other complication, which would be unusual in a more traditional musical, is the presence of Tej, the family friend and “uncle,” who is very close to Lalit, the father, but who we learn is a pedophile. Tej, it turns out, had abused Parma’s cousin and step-sister Ria and is now turning his attentions to another young girl. When Ria finally exposes him, she is at first disbelieved, and Lalit has to make the final choice to expel Tej from the wedding, putting his daughters above his friendship and debts of personal help to Tej.
What Mira Nair does in Monsoon Wedding is to preserve and even celebrate many of the elements of the Bollywood musical, using the occasion of a wedding as a celebration of Indian life and families. Like many Bollywood films, there is a certain idealism reflected in the cast of characters, who represent many different regions, religions and ethnic groups in the country. When one cousin jokingly complains that Punjabis (the Punjab region is where Delhi is located) are “ostentatious,” he is told in return that Bengalis like him are “pretentious.” The gibes are all in good humor, and we see that even one friend or relative of the family is a Sikh (indicated by his turban and beard), a religion centered in the Punjab that has often experienced violent clashes with Hindus and Muslims in recent Indian history. Dubey, the wedding planner, is a largely comic character but he also reflects the “new India” that the characters comment about several times. He is a self-made man, an entrepreneur who makes his living by tending to the needs of India’s growing affluent middle class.
At the end, Nair makes no more promises about her characters and their futures than Ray does in the Apu trilogy, but like him she suggests that life’s great lesson is to be found in the journey. Several scenes are separated by shots of the streets of Delhi that have little direct relationship to the story. That motif does serve, though, to place the lives of these characters in the context of this huge, diverse, and changing country, and to suggest that the streets of Delhi, like the road on which Apu walks, are also roads to the future.