Monsoon Wedding: A Masterful Portrayal of Indian Diversity
The street outside St. Ann’s Warehouse in DUMBO Brooklyn has in recent weeks buzzed with excitement and anticipation. At the point of intersection of the East and West rivers, the sound of traditional Punjabi Bhangra music blends with the sound of New York City subways rushing across the Brooklyn bridge. An eager audience in one of the most cosmopolitan neighborhoods of the world’s most diverse city awaits musical adaptation of director Mira Nair’s award-winning film, Monsoon Wedding.
Monsoon Wedding is an innovative marvel of musical theater, painting an Indian story using Western forms of musical theater. As Ms. Nair emphasized in her talk-back, she had to “learn the rules of American theater so that she could break them.” Therefore, Nair fundamentally changes the norms of the style, featuring Indian dhols and sitars to present a musical form rooted in centuries of rich Indian culture and tradition. In addition to iconic styles popularized by Bollywood, Ms. Nair draws on nautanki, or folk singing styles from Northern Indian villages, to convey certain storylines, vividly painting a portrait of India’s diverse sound.
These avant-garde stylistic decisions complement a storyline that not only presents the bifurcated identity of an Indian diaspora adapting to globalization, as the original 2001 film so beautifully does, but also unapologetically celebrates the immense cultural and religious heterogeneity of India’s people. The musical demonstrates the comedic love story of Mr. Dubey, a devout Hindu wedding planner, and Alice, a Christian maid. Although religious divisions hinder the love of these characters (As Dubeyji’s iconic line: “How can I love a Christian human?” demonstrates), Nair demonstrates them ultimately embracing and transcending difference. In developing this plot, she takes us through a heart-wrenching presentation of the Partition to stress India’s need to overcome religious and cultural fragmentation to forge fulfilling relationships. Nair explains that growing up during the post-partition era, she was a child of “a new India” that attempted to promote democratic secularism despite divisions that the British exploited. However, in the past five to ten years, growing animosity between differing religious and cultural factions has threatened the peaceful diversity of India. A musical that celebrates India’s diversity is refreshing and needed to counteract a Western narrative that presents India’s people as a unicultural monolith.
In addition to these critical plotlines, the main story of the musical presents a wealthy Punjabi family arranging a marriage between their daughter and an Indian American banker from New Jersey. Mira Nair masterfully weaves in messages about the banker’s loss of connection with his Indian heritage throughout the story, by, for example, introducing him questioning if India is really his home. Although garnering many laughs, the banker struggling to speak Hindi and interacting with his stereotypically Punjabi in-laws beautifully conveys the duality of the Indian American experience—being Indian in America and somehow American in India. Many Bollywood films, including Karan Johar’s Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham and Vipul Shah’s Namaste London have attempted to capture this experience as well, but they have done this without regard for Indian diversity, rendering their messages largely inaccurate, although empowering.
Lastly, throughout the plot, Ms. Nair uses music to elevate the voices of female characters and demonstrate an Indian struggling between progress and tradition. The musical features the song “Bardaash Kurro,” in which the main character’s mother explains that in “the old times” societal norms of duty forced women to tolerate all forms of misogyny, a paradigm away from which India is slowly moving.
Furthermore, one of the most important plotlines in the second half of the musical demonstrates the character Riya finding the strength to speak out against sexual abuse perpetrated by her uncle, the “head of the family” by Indian tradition. Percussive music characterizes Ri- ya’s song as she comes out about her abuse to her family. In demonstrating the fallout of this accusation, Nair portrays Riya’s family struggling to protect Riya while bound by traditional values to respect her uncle. Ultimately, the family overcomes cultural barriers to protect Riya and her sisters and remove her uncle from their family, demonstrating that the Indian family can embrace progress without degenerating.
Nair’s musical is a unique and refreshing marvel of theater. Its nautanki and Bollywood-esque mu- sic and dances bring India’s rich cultural tradition to the American stage. It is hilarious and heartbreak- ing, but ultimately Nair explained that through the musical, she wants to stress the need to live with “masti”, a genuine intoxication with life. Through music, dance, and cultural practices, Nair wants her audience to live every day as a celebration of life, pursuing happiness regardless of cultural barriers. Her final song repeats the joyful phrase “Shava! Shava!” as her entire cast comes to the stage, dancing together in a final celebration.
