Seminar: Monsoon Wedding

As one of the most influential global filmmakers of the Indian diaspora, Mira Nair has described her film Monsoon Wedding as a “reality check” version of a conventional Bollywood film. 

Using this remark as a guiding framework, this talk explores how Monsoon Wedding draws on familiar elements of popular Hindi cinema such as family melodrama, music, visual spectacle, and the wedding as a narrative centerpiece, while simultaneously grounding these conventions in Nair’s documentary-inflected realism and socially attentive lens. 

Rather than presenting the wedding as pure spectacle, the film transforms it into a dynamic portrayal of post-liberalized modern India where transnational mobility, class hierarchies, gendered silences, and intimate family histories intersect. Through its hybrid form and celebratory yet critical tone, Monsoon Wedding enables diaspora filmmakers like Nair to reimagine the language of popular cinema, crafting stories that are deeply rooted in local realities while resonating across global audiences. 

About Dr. Shilpa Parnami 

Dr. Shilpa Parnami coordinates the Hindi-Urdu program and teaches Hindi language, culture, and cinema courses at Boston University.