Produced by: Sisse Graum Olsen
Written by: Susanne Bier; Anders Thomas Jensen
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen; Sidse Babett Knudsen
Music by: Johan Söderqvist
Cinematography: Morten Søborg
Release date: Denmark 24 February 2006
Running time: 120 minutes
Country: Denmark; Sweden
Language: Danish; Swedish; Hindi; English

What intrigued me most however was the India angle. The film begins and ends in India, the narrow slums of Mumbai before moving to the plush suburbs of Copenhagen. Mikkelsen plays Jacob, who volunteers for an orphanage in Mumbai and is quite attached to an 8-year-old Indian boy, Pramod, whom he has taken care of since childhood.
My question was why Mumbai slums? What purpose does it serve in the grand scheme of the film’s plot? Apparently nothing. Granted, the Mumbai setting moves the plot. Jacob needs money, otherwise the orphanage will close down. He finds a donor in a Danish millionaire, who however wants to meet him before they seal the deal. The point of the plot is to make Jacob confront his past. There would have been other ways of doing it, but why India? Perhaps it was to bring forth a contrast, between riches and poverty, between losing one’s family and finding family among strangers. (At one point, Jorgen, the millionaire, tells Jacob that he will donate enough money to feed 65,000 children for a years in India, which is more than the entire population of Denmark combined.)
Bier’s visuals of Bombay borders on poverty porn, yet looks very authentic. Even the use of Hindi by the Indian actors rings true (as opposed to Jimmy Mistry talking in accented Hindi in 2012.)
But After the Wedding is not about India. It’s about two men, Jacob and Jorgen, their past and present and their love for the same woman, Helene. Almodovar would feel quite at home with the story.

As Jacob and Helene go through the routine of guilt and reconciliation, we are spared of the flashback about what happened between them 20 years ago (there are some hints in dialogues, but no scene). This was a wise decision which saves the film from falling into a traditional melodrama. Everything is played out here and now, and how the characters respond to it. (Another interesting point is the epilogue in Mumbai. Jacob returns to India for one last time. He offers to take Pramod with him to Denmark. But the young boy refuses. He likes it in Mumbai, even in the face of poverty.)
After the Wedding reminds me the 1974 Hindi film Aap Ki Kasam, where a jealous Rajesh Khanna dumps a pregnant Mumtaz imagining that she was having an affair with Sanjeev Kumar. Khanna then roams around as homeless wanderer and ends up attending his daughter’s wedding to finally clear all misunderstandings. The best thing about the film was the soundtrack by R D Burman, with gems like ‘Karwaten Badalte Rahen,’ ‘Paas Nahin Aana’ and ‘Zindagi Ke Safar Mein Guzar Jaate Hain.’
Bier’s latest, In A Better World, which moves between Denmark and Africa, won the best foreign language award at this year’s Golden Globe and has also been nominated for the Oscar in the same category.
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