Monsoon Wedding Essay

Monsoon Wedding reveals an experience that is equal amounts of foreign and familiar to both American and Indian audiences. In what seems to be a combination of Hollywood and Bollywood, the movie starts with a chaotic, arranged marriage that ends in moments of dramatic revelation and joyful celebrations. In Monsoon Wedding, director Mira Nair illustrates the tension between a traditional and globalized India but encourages her audience to embrace both customs by comparing the marriages of Alice and Aditi.

Nair shows the culture clash of India through her two leading ladies, Alice, the Verma family servant, and Aditi, the Verma family daughter, who serve, respectively, as symbols for traditional and globalized India. From their marriage partners

To begin, Nair shows us that both couples have a willingness to work and fight for their relationships, from Dubey's thoughtful marigold proposal and fierce protection of Alice to Aditi's honest confession of her affair, and Hemant's forgiving response. Hemant explains to Aditi, "What marriage doesn't have risks? Whether our parents introduce us, or we meet at a club, what difference does it make?" Hemant emphasizes that it is not so much about how two people meet but more so about how they approach a relationship: with honesty, integrity, and empathy. Relationships and individuals are complex, and thus should be regarded with sincerity. In the same way, culture is just as complex. Returning to the censorship scene, Aditi watches from the sidelines as her ex-boyfriend and television personality, Vikram, poses the question of censorship in India on his show Delhi.com: is censorship necessary and how much western influence can an another culture accept? The question can be related back to how one approaches a relationship. Censorship is not a valid means of upholding culture; it is dishonest and rather ineffective. Instead, Monsoon Wedding encourages us to commemorate India's