3. Monsoon Wedding (2001)
Upon its release in 2001, award-winning movie Monsoon Wedding was a cross-continental hit for director Mira Nair and writer Sabrina Dhawan. Set in India's capital of New Delhi, the film chronicles the events leading up to the wedding of Aditi (Vasundhara Das), a young Indian woman who has agreed to an arranged marriage with Texas-based Hemant Rai (Parvin Dabas) after ending her long-standing affair with a married TV presenter. As the wedding approaches, the reunion of Aditi's relatives from across the globe results in a heady mixture of chaos, drama, humour, music and both familial and romantic love. Nair's film is colourful and dynamic, whilst the background of the monsoon season perfectly reflects the film's high emotion. Aditi's extended relatives, with their arguments and expectations, provide one of the most realistic and relatable depictions of family in cinema. As Aditi, Vasundhara Das astutely captures the confusion and uncertainty her character initially feels. She plays Aditi as an imperfect but completely emphatic character, whose story carries the first half of the film, whilst Shefali Shetty, who plays Ria, Aditi's cousin and confidante, produces a heart-breaking and absolutely convincing performance. The romance between stressed wedding planner Dubey (Vijay Raaz) and servant girl Alice (Tillotama Shome) provides the movie with some of its sweetest and most heartfelt moments, but it is ultimately the family relations which anchor the movie. There is a serious subplot concerning a certain member of the family whose actions threaten to undermine the future happiness of the others. The disturbing nature of this subplot results in the movie never becoming sentimental, instead it is poignant, upbeat and exhilarating, the perfect family drama and the perfect wedding movie: an absolute must-see.