Monsoon Wedding

Director Mira Nair’s film covers familiar ground—the days leading up to a wedding, with crises, conflicts, and flaring tempers. But Nair gives it an exotic setting in the upper-middle-class suburbs of Delhi (with a bride and groom who meet only two days before the ceremony) and a riotous, colorful exuberance that makes her movie look and feel like something completely new. At first it’s as if Nair has abandoned us at a really interesting party—it takes a while to get all the characters straight, but they’re so interesting and outgoing that it’s fun getting to know them. Before long we feel right at home with these nimble-minded people who switch with such ease from English to Hindi to Punjabi and back again. The movie is a whirlwind, chock-full of life, running at a heedless full throttle.