| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (25 min. 5 sec.) ; 151397019 bytes |
| Summary |
Wedding Sari Showdown is a real life Bride & Prejudice set in Melbourne, Australia and Rajasthan, India, in the Inside Australia timeslot. Directed by Kylie Boltin and produced by Sharyn Prentice, this entertaining true story won 'Best Short Documentary' at Melbourne's Real Life on Film Festival this year.Strong willed, educated and forthright Indian-Australian Ramona Dhillon was 27 when she fell head-over-heels in love with Anurag Saboo, the eldest son of one of Rajasthan's wealthiest merchant families. When she decided to marry him secretly at a Melbourne Registry Office, neither of their families were impressed, and Anu and Ramona were soon to find they had walked headlong into an epic clash of cultures.To compensate, the couple were forced to undergo two further traditional wedding ceremonies to suit their family traditions - the Dhillons wanted a modest Punjabi Sikh ceremony in Melbourne, while the more conservative Saboos insisted upon an elaborate wedding in Rajasthan hosting 2000 guests and taking over three hotels for five days.In Wedding Sari Showdown we see just how different the very Australian Ramona is to the expectations of her traditional Marwari in-laws. From the moment she changes into a midriff revealing wedding sari, exposing the tattoo on her back and her bellybutton ring, it is obvious things are not going to run smoothly.The heat is on when they fly to Jodhpur and Ramona discovers that the wedding guests have been lied to about her - without her knowledge. The guests believe that she and Anu have not yet been married, and that she has been hand-picked by his family in the traditional arranged way. When she arrives in India wearing the 40 red bangles worn only by married Sikh women the cat is almost let out of the bag and Ramona is angry and hurt.Cracks appear in their relationship as Anu is torn between the expectations of his family and the strong-willed Ramona who insists that they must move with the times. She will not remove her wedding bangles, refuses to wear a traditional sari or cover her head around the house, and insists that Anu should be united with her in this stance.The wedding becomes the stage for a painful yet hilarious challenge of wills, set against the backdrop of a spectacular Marwari ceremony, complete with a choreographed dance about Ramona and Anu's romance and Anu riding on a horse to collect his bride. Things don't look good when Ramona growls "Get away from me!" to her new husband during the wedding photos, and matters don't improve when even the marriage bed gives her hay fever.As bride of the eldest Saboo son, Ramona is now head of the family and the new generation, and you are left wondering what changes she will bring to this conservative Marwari family. She and Anu have survived a rocky journey and by the end are a more unified couple, determined to find a workable compromise together. (Commissioned by SBS Independent, in English and Hindi, with English subtitles) |
| Event |
Broadcast 2010-05-20 at 15:30:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: PG |
| Subject |
East Indian diaspora.
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Indians -- Marriage customs and rites.
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Intergenerational relations.
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Man-woman relationships -- Psychological aspects.
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Marriage service.
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Marwaris -- Social life and customs.
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India -- Jodhpur.
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Victoria -- Melbourne.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Boltin, Kylie, director
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Dhillon, Ramona, contributor
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Saboo, Anurag, contributor
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Vandenberg, Leah, cast
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