2. Monsoon Wedding (2001)

Language: English/Hindi/Punjabi

Director: Mira Nair

Running time: 114 mins

Starring: Naseeruddin Shah, Lillette Dubey, Vijay Raaz, Vasundhara Das

Company: Delhi Dot Com/IFC Productions/Keyfilms Roma/Mirabai Films/Pandora Filmproduktion GmbH/Paradis Films

A cross-over film in every sense, Nair's film about the shenanigans during a traditional Punjabi wedding seeks to link popular and parallel Indian cinema, diasporic and Indian audiences and the small film with the multi-cast starrer. It could also be read as Mira Nair, a documentary filmmaker by training, visiting the sets of the biggest grosser of Bombay cinema - Hum Aapke Hain Koun? - described by many critics as a gaudy marriage video. The action is tightly arranged around a series of everyday situations usually involving multiple characters giving the entire narrative an open-endedness that is further highlighted by the intimate camerawork around members of the party. Low-key photography set against the sombre light of the monsoon in India aids the conspiratorial atmosphere of the family romance although all is well by the time the film ends. Some critics see it as ushering in a new wave in Indian cinema.