Monsoon Wedding

Monsoon Wedding (2001) is an Indian family comedy-drama directed by Mira Nair — watch it online on iFILM. The Verma family in New Delhi is in full preparation for a traditional Punjabi arranged marriage. The bride and groom barely know each other, the event planner has fallen for a maid, and relatives are flying in from across the world, each carrying something they'd rather not put on the table. The film took the Golden Lion at Venice in 2001.

Over the few days before the ceremony, the cracks appear fast. Bride Aditi has a secret life her family doesn't know about. An uncle trusted around children turns out to be exactly the wrong person for that trust. The father, played by Naseeruddin Shah, absorbs everything and cannot afford to break. Nair shot on location in Delhi, mixing professional and non-professional actors, with a handheld camera that gives the chaos a lived-in texture.

It is a rare film that manages to be genuinely funny and genuinely troubling in the same breath — a wedding movie that refuses to look away from what families protect and what they ignore. Stream Monsoon Wedding (2001) online on iFILM.