Monsoon Wedding

Mira Nair's sumptuous Indian saga was a surprise hit, especially in the US, in the early years of this decade.

The 'modern classic' strap has already been attached to it, none more so than by its original financiers FilmFour who have made it one of the flagship titles of their new "Classic Collection" range (though in actuality this is probably just an excuse to recoup the cash that hemorrhaged out of the company at the same time of the film’s release due to such costly disasters as Lucky Break, Charlotte Gray, Crush and Birthday Girl).

The central story, unsurprisingly, is filleted around the wedding of the title with the patriarch of the Verma family attempting to host the most expensively chaotic wedding seen this side of Delhi. The coupling is an arranged one and his daughter has only known her intended bridegroom for mere weeks. Whilst this seems like a nice excuse to stage "My Big Opulent Indian Wedding", the film begins to tread a more interesting trail once the extended family arrive and old allegiances are formed, previous abuse scandals are uncovered and family disapproval threatens to derail the proceedings.

The winner of the Golden Lion at Venice (Nair being the first woman to win this award and only the second Indian after Satyajit Ray), you somehow feel were the location transplanted to a Yorkshire housing estate with the same characters it would immediately excise one of the main characters, which is undoubtedly the Indian landscape, lovingly captured by cinematographer Declan Quinn. An entertaining film undoubtedly, but don’t look too closely beneath the attractive wrapping paper on the gift table.

Extras: Directors Commentary, Behind The Scenes featurette and Trailer.

Released on 17th March 2008 by 4DVD.

Written by Simon Cole.