Monsoon Wedding, a Bollywood film directed by Mira Nair and released in 2001, earned just above $30 million at the box office [1]. The film brilliantly depicts romantic entanglements during a traditional Punjabi wedding in Delhi, while delicately handling sensitive issues such as child-abuse, pre-arranged marital infidelity, growing old and striving to be different as an upper middle class Indian boy, or being a flirtatious, bored but basically settled NRI (non-resident Indian) housewife. The film won the Golden Lion award and received a Golden Globe Award nomination, achieving a total of six wins and ten nominations [2].
An important issue highlighted in the background of Monsoon Wedding is the heinous and inhuman crime of child abuse.
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This caused much problem between him and Lalit, his father. Although it was never clarified in the movie that the boy was homosexual, his father hinted as such at one point. The boy was never shown to have been abused in the past; still his feminine characteristics are what experts believe to be a sign of child sexual abuse. It is a well documented fact that boys and girls often experience homosexuality in later life when abused by the same gender adults. Although nowadays lawsuits and gay/lesbian rights have made it as such for people to widely discredit this theory. The fact, however, remains (even if it is all hushed up these days) that child sexual abuse can cause homosexuality [6 -7].
A farfetched idea in the film was the confrontation between Ria and her offender. Mostly women, who have been victims of sexual abuse as children, grow up to be reserved and frightened individuals. Especially in India and other such countries the victim never musters up the courage to stand up to their offenders, let alone stand up for someone else. Although exceptional cases might exist, usually women with such pasts tend to develop antisocial and suicidal behaviours.
The director seamlessly weaves five separate plot threads throughout the main story, all involving their own social repercussions and the consequent changes in the lives of all those caught up in the dilemmas they face. The film is filled with a rich
To start, the film seems like your basic run-on-the mill coming of age tale with a group of teenagers growing up to desire more after they graduate high school. However, there are various more themes discreetly displayed throughout the runtime of the film. For example, one central sociological overtone of this film is Marxism. With this overtone, it becomes possible to view this light-hearted and comedic movie in a
This movie explores issues of greed, human relationships, betrayal and redemption, personal innocence and responsibility as well as the effects on the human mind
This movie Directed by Paul Haggis who also directed Academy Award Winning "Million Dollar Baby" and had also won an Academy Award for this movie as well puts a twisted story in this film. This movie is trying to symbolize what goes on in the world today in regards to racism and stereotypes. He tries to make a point on how societies view themselves and others in the world based on there ethnicities. This movie intertwines several different people's lives, all different races, with different types of beliefs. Such ethnicities include Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Middle Eastern. This movie includes conflicts on both sides of the picture from cops and criminals as well
1. What are the main themes, politically and socially, that are portrayed in the film?
One of the themes that stand out the most in the film is the struggle to overcome adversity and push through problems in one’s life that could otherwise get in the way from achieving goals. In the film, many
The lesbian desires her mother and to become a male herself, she disowns her vagina and wishes for a penis (Podder & De, 2011). The child hides the incestuous desire by manifesting it in another same sex individual. Without proper resolution of this stage, the child would begin to identify with the parent of the opposite sex and not of the same sex. “The unconscious dynamics of the gender role in male homosexuals was found to be feminine with an aspiration to be masculine at times, while female homosexuals were found to be more masculine” (Podder & De, 2011). Some believe that a child can be distinguished as a homosexual early on in development by the behaviors exhibited by the child. Children, who exhibit deviant behavior of gender roles, for example girly boys or tomboys, are at a higher risk of becoming a homosexual later in life (Podder & De, 2011). Personality development is critical in childhood.
The degree of connection between all of the characters in the movie is so coincidental and interrelated to emphasize the point that we do not always know what is going on with everyone else we may encounter. It also accentuates the fact that racism is not one particular race against another. It also shows that we never know someone’s situation and what is happening in their life to make them act the way that they do if
2) What are some of the themes that are central to the film? How have they been communicated?
In the film Monsoon Wedding, Indian culture is illustrated in the practices of the traditional Punjabi wedding. The wedding in the film was arranged as is the norm in Indian culture. Thought the wedding was rushed it was not forced. Aditi wanted to be married having realised the uncertainty of her previous relationship with a married man.
This film presents an individual that chooses not to conform to modern society, and the consequences of that choice. The main character
Monsoon wedding”(2007), an award winning movie, directed by mira nair. Features widely known Indian actors, such as Vasundhara Das, Naseeruddin Shah and Vijay Raaz.
The review of this movie is based on sociological matters that are outshined in the film and touch on the lives of the individuals, their way of living, morals, behavior and cultural aspects. The film is set in a real society and concentrating much on social issues of the society more than the economic, technological and political status of this society based in New York.
Child abuse and neglect in India is a growing social problem (Caesar-Leo). Two-Thirds of Indian children are physically abused and more than half have faced some form of sexual abuse (Bedi). All of these children are being
There is much debate that homosexuality is a developmental problem caused by a weak bond between a father and son during one’s childhood. A failed relationship with one’s father can lead the boy to not fully internalize male gender identity and develop homosexually (Baird & Baird, 1995). Consider the gender development of identity. Infants indentify with their mother who is the first and primary source of nurturance and care. As girls age, they continue to identify mostly with their mother and boys shift towards their father. Through a father-son relationship, masculine identification is attained which is necessary if the boy is to develop a normally masculine personality (i.e. heterosexuality). This development task helps explain why boys have more difficulty than girls in developing gender identity and may also explain the higher ratio of male to female homosexuality (Baird & Baird, 1995). It is important that
Mira Nair’s very first film was an Oscar nominee. Her Monsoon Wedding showcased Indian culture to the mainstream like never before. Her latest Vanity Fair is what Hollywood is all about: epic plot, visual opulence, acclaimed artists all with just a twist of India thrown into it. At the start of her filmmaking career, Nair primarily made documentaries in which she explored Indian cultural tradition. Nair pays a lot of attention to details in her films. She knows how delighted we get to find something we are familiar with so there is a very slim chance that you may not