4 POSTER CANOPY BED

Monsoon Wedding (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Cultures and families clash in Mira Nair’s exuberant Monsoon Wedding, a mix of comedy and chaotic melodrama concerning the preparations for the arranged marriage of a modern upper-middle-class Indian family’s only daughter, Aditi. Of course there are hitches—Aditi has been having an affair with a married TV host; she’s never met her husband to be, who lives in Houston; the wedding has worsened her father’s hidden financial troubles; even the wedding planner has become a nervous wreck—as well as buried family secrets. But Nair’s celebration is ultimately joyful and cathartic: a love song to her home city of Delhi and her own Punjabi family.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director Mira Nair and director of photography Declan Quinn with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack • Audio commentary featuring Nair • Nair’s short documentaries So Far from India (1983), India Cabaret (1985), and The Laughing Club of India (2001), featuring video introductions by the director • Nair’s short fiction films The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat (1993), 11'09'01—September 11 (Segment: India) (2002), Migration (2007), and How Can It Be? (2008), featuring video introductions by the director • New video interview with actor Naseeruddin Shah, conducted by Nair • New video interviews with Quinn and production designer Stephanie Carroll • Theatrical trailer • New and improved English subtitle translation • PLUS: An essay by critic and travel writer Pico Iyer

Monsoon Wedding is a return to form for Mira Nair, director of 1988's Salaam Bombay! Nair's gift for observation of the everyday and her love for her characters make for a delightful film, which spins a web of family relationships that knit and break during a wedding at a perfect pace. The excellent performances exceed the often stereotypical roles on offer (including the incomparable Nasiruddin Shah as the harassed father, Kulbhushan Kharbanda as the comic uncle, and Shefali Chaya as the orphaned cousin). Nair's sympathetic eye for the unnoticed and the harassed is at its best with the tender romance between the servant and Dube (Vijay Raaz), the marigold-munching, upwardly mobile wedding coordinator, who brings pathos and humor to the often unseen servant classes. The handheld camera gives a docudrama feel to this celebratory look at the upper-middle-class Hindu Punjabi joint family, while paying tribute to modern Indian public culture of music, television, and, of course, "Bollywood." --Rachel Dwyer

I left an important convention with a migraine to lay down in my hotel room. This is what woke me up many floors below! I took this through a hotel window trying to avoid the glare of direct sun.

This Indian wedding reception featured the custom made canopy, stools and tables on a rich Persian carpet.