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In Reply to: Indian movie (Monsoon wedding) addressing child abuse posted by Farmer on November 05, 2006 at 11:14:43:
If you click around at the given link/website, you find some reviews & I list here some quotes, to show what I mean was very meaningful to me - besides what else all the
critics rightfully wrote (most of the time)...
one wrote:
Nair, who helmed The Perez Family and Mississippi Masala, expertly handles what amounts to a two-hour plate spinning show. Despite some minor problems (the whole angle with the probable child molester is out of place and just plain creepy), Nair and screenwriter Sabrina Dhawan obviously care about the characters. We're allowed to see everyone's vulnerable side. When Lalit sobs in frustration on his wife's shoulders it matters because Nair and Dhawan take the time into making the characters more than just by-products of a sitcom predicament.
I say, Lalit sobs, because to me he really feels for the suffering his niece Ria endured during her childhood (his brother seemed to have died early) & he feels so helpless, concerning what to do, to help Ria....but in the end of the movie, even Ria seems to brighten up, as some handsome relative appears at the marriage feast.
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20020308/REVIEWS/203080301/1023
he wrote:
And there is intrigue of a darker sort as Aditi's cousin observes a family friend who once assaulted her and now may have his eye on a young relative.
A harsher moment of truth comes when Aditi's father, who places loyalty to family above everything, breaks with tradition to do the right thing in a painful situation, no matter what.
from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54462-2002Mar7
it says there:
As if organizing this big event wasn't hectic enough, Lalit learns that his unmarried niece, Ria (Shefali Shetty), is nursing some traumatic sexual memories from her past. And, it seems, Lalit's young son, Varun (Ishaan Nair), who toys with makeup, may not be the strapping heterosexual the old man had always hoped for.
Unlike the first comment above, some film-critics seemed to really have undug the jewels I saw in this film, which I believe any EX - TF-member would notice at once:
Lalit sides with his niece, when they all as relatives give reverence to the pic of the deceased father of Ria & Lalit has cared for her like a daughter...as the ties are very strong anyway in India between familymembers....but to me Lalit really cares about Ria & is heartbroken about what happened to her in her childhood, which never dawned on him before, but just got all out now at the arranged marriage of Ria's cousin...another jewel is observing Ria as her molester enters the room, joins the ceremonies...also how Ria defends her little relative - what she fears is about to happen to her as it happen to herself , as e.g. this little girl says, she knows all about kissing etc.. is really touching...
then Lalit, as he "throws" out his brother in law...the molester...if I got the relationships right...the husband of his sister...he says, I would even defend my kids from myself if need be...what a statement...wow...I mean, that whole scene is so powerful...I don't know, why no critic raves about that...well, I didn't read all of the reviews...about a good dozen of the Englishspeaking media...& the first one above shows, how off they can get.
May be the most touching scene...besides Dubey offering a heart made of flowers to his chosen bride...the maid of the household...is to me, where Lalit chases off his
brother in law...whose family greatly has helped him financially etc...& who offered to pay for Ria's studies in the US...& kisses Ria gently on her forehead & she seems to greatly admire him for this act of standing up for her side of the story...for her...it really moved me.
