The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Summertime may mean a dearth of television shows, but it also means an abundance of time for movies. Yesterday I rounded up the Family Sri (all four of us) to go see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Quick synopsis - Dissatisfied with their lives for various reasons, seven elderly Britishers (played by an all-star cast including Dame Judi Dench) decide to move to a retirement community in Jaipur, Rajastan. What they find is a dilapidated hotel run by a hopeless dreamer (played by Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire fame) who is barely keeping the place together. Guests and hotel go through dramatic transformations, all set in the whirligig world of India where ancient and modern live side-by-side, if not always in harmony. Essentially, this is a story of rebirth - what we think of as "the end," of our lives or our dreams, is sometimes just the beginning.

Here's what my family thought...

Mom: I really liked the scene when they're on the bus traveling in the wrong lane, and another bus comes opposite - and they say "AAAAH!" - that is real! That happens in India all the time.

Me: What did you think?
Chaky: Good.
Me: What was good about it?
Chaky: The plot.
Me: Did you like any of the characters?
Chaky: *shrug*
Me: You're useless to me, you know that?

Dad: The most poignant part was when that lady in the wheelchair (Maggie Smith) went to her maidservant's house to thank her. She was prejudiced before she went to India, but then she realized that the two of them were alike - more alike than different. They also address some very serious issues of age, *sideways look* sexual preferences, cultural differences, and then, eventually, they all came to the same place. There's not much difference between this group and that group.

Overall Rating: Four thumbs up from the Family Sri.