MONSOON WEDDING (2001) **1/2 Classic Bollywood, which is of course different than classic Dreyer. The number of plot lines and characters that they get off the ground is impressive, if a reminder that diverse cultures share a finite number of personality boilerplates and psychological problems. Classic stuff throughout for any graduate student doing work on a psychological take of "the sins of the fathers" falling upon their children, with bullying gutlessness and lack of original ideas being of primary importance in the sin parade. It would have been helpful to have at least one compelling lead, in the Larry Hagman or Linda Evans mold, but the romance between Vijay Raaz and Tilotama Shome is genuinely moving, the sets are colorfully tremendous (particularly when offset by the rising sun/untouchables on their way to work counterpoint-"Dynasty" never showed that), and the musical interludes highly entertaining. With so much up in the air there's plenty for everyone; the comedy lines worked best for me but the morality plays dragged a bit. Mira Nair has learned her lessons well from the Western primetime soap "masters," left them in fact far behind, but how could she not have concluded by freezing on Rahul Vohra's classic smiley-smirk and kicked in with some of Aerosmith's Indian-influenced metal?
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