Punjabi Wedding

Punjabi Wedding Ceremony is a very lively yet a simple function and is celebrated with lots of relish. The wedding ceremony consists of many rituals, which have a distinct significance and charm. These weddings due to their colorful manner have got a prominent place in Indian movies.
Pre Wedding Rituals in Punjabi Wedding :-

1:-Roka:- Roka ceremony is performed on a mutually convenient chosen date as `shubh muhurat`. This function is attended by family members and close friends for basically exchanging gifts and cash. Roka ceremony is engagement between the alliances and since that day they are allowed to court. The wedding date is fixed after roka.

Sagan:- The ceremony usually takes at the groom`s house. Sacred fire ceremony named "havan" is performed. The girl`s father applies the "tikka" (made of kesar, rice grains and flower petals) on the boy`s forehead who takes the blessing from the girl`s family members. Each of the relatives and friends present from the girl`s side then offers mithai to the boy and gives cash.

Chunni Chadana
On this occasion, the boy`s parents and relatives visit the girl`s house. The boy`s sister or sister in law presents the bride a red "chunni" or a red sari. After dressing the girl in clothes brought by the boy`s family, they lead her to the venue of the ceremony where the groom`s mother gives her gifts and adorns her with jewellery. The boy and the girl exchange rings and the girl is given gifts, in cash and kind, by all those present from the boy`s side.
Sangeet
Sangeet is one of the interesting and fun filled part of the marriage ceremony. Before the wedding day after Sagan on every night till the wedding day, the relatives and friends get together for singing sessions both at the boy`s as well as the girl`s house. One day is fixed for special sangeet session which is attended and celebrated by both the sides together.

Mehendi
Mehendi is applied on the bride`s hands and feet either by a family member or by a professional but the important factor is that the Mehendi is sent by the boy`s side as part of the kwar dhoti, sent by the boy`s family on the wedding day.

French Film Festival

The High Museum of Art presents French Film Yesterday and Today beginning Friday, April 13, through Saturday, April 21. The series’ four films include a treasured masterpiece and fresh, contemporary productions, including “The Rules of the Game,” one of France’s most influential films of all time, and “Lemming,” which was selected to open the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

“This year’s French Film Yesterday and Today offers lovers of contemporary French cinema the pleasure of seeing some of that country’s greatest talents—Isabelle Huppert, Charlotte Rampling, Charlotte Gainsbourgh and Catherine Frot—at work in a trio of brilliantly acted movies,” said Linda Dubler, Curator of Media Arts at the High. “In addition, those who enjoy the classics shouldn’t miss ‘The Rules of The Game,’ Jean Renoir’s masterpiece, routinely cited as one of the ten greatest films ever, finally presented in a newly restored 35mm print.”


April 10 and April 12, La Moustache

Directed by Emmanuel Carrère

- A successful architect, Marc finds his world improbably unraveling over a trifle: his wife, smart, self-assured Agnes, fails to recognize that he’s shaved his mustache. Unnerved by her silence, he presses her to comment on his new look, and she replies insistently that he’s always been smooth-lipped. Thus begins the steady erosion of Marc’s sanity, along with his once happy, even passionate, marriage. In the L.A. Times, Kevin Thomas called this witty psychological mystery “a deliciously unsettling, beautifully sustained enigma, a film of much beauty and flawless performances.” (France, 2005, 87 minutes.) In French, English, and Cantonese with subtitles.


April 11, Forever

Directed by Heddy Honigmann

- Paris’s Père Lachaise cemetery, the final resting place of Jim Morrison, Proust, Modigliani, and Chopin, is the inspiration for Dutch filmmaker Heddy Honigmann’s tender documentary Forever. With generosity and warmth, the filmmaker records her encounters with pilgrims at the graves of the famous and conversations with locals who tend the plots of their loved ones. Among others, we meet an Iranian-born cab driver paying homage to his countryman, the exiled poet Sadegh Hedayat; a Japanese pianist devoted to Chopin; an embalmer who visits the remains of the artist Modigliani to find inspiration for his work on faces; and a tart-tongued, humorous Parisienne whose husband is buried in the neighborhood of rocker Jim Morrison. In a Salon.com review, Andrew O’Hehir called Forever “One of the purest, most moving motion pictures of the year.” (Netherlands, 2006, 95 minutes.) In French and English with subtitles.


April 18, Gabrielle

Directed by Patrice Chéreau

- Drawn from a story by Joseph Conrad, this elegant, chilly chamber drama directed by Patrice Chereau could be called “Scenes from a Marriage: Belle Époque.” The year is 1912, the place Paris, and the setting the exquisitely appointed household of a model couple, Jean (Pascal Greggory) and Gabrielle (Isabelle Huppert). They’re famous for their weekly salon, where self-designated intellectuals spar over the latest ideas, and admired for their wealth and sophistication. But theirs is an empty marriage, doomed by Jean’s iciness, summed up in his attitude that emotion is revolting. When Gabrielle inevitably strays, he discovers that though he never believed in love, he may not be able to live without it. (France, Germany, Italy, 2005, 90 minutes.) In French with subtitles.