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The Best Exotic Marygold Hotel




Directed by: John Madden

Language: English

Year: 2011

Genre: Drama, Comedy

Starring: Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Dev Patel, Celia Imrie, Ronal Pickup

Based on: These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach


Synopsis

A decrepit hotel hosts seven British tourists who come to Jaipur on a holiday. Each one has a past and a new ambition. Their lives intervene with their host, who is also trying to get a grip on life.


My view

The Best Exotic Marygold Hotel is a retirement destination in Jaipur, India for the "elderly and beautiful". A group of seven British with seven different reasons come here. 

1. Evelyn Greenslade - Forced to sell her London flat.

2. Michel Donelly - Hates foreigners, but in need of cheap hip replacement.

3,4. Douglas & Jean Ainslie - Not so happy couple and also has lost a bundle of money on their daughter's internet company.

5. Graham Dashwood - Had spent his happiest youth years in India & has returned seeking his young love.

6. Madge Hardcastle - In search of finding a husband.

7. Norman Cousins - Open to the the the possibility of finding a one night stand.

They are greeted and welcomed at the Best Exotic Marygold Hotel by, Sonny Kapoor, who had inherited the old hotel from his late dad. He wants to run the hotel by himself and marry his girlfriend, despite the objections from his mother, who wants him to live with her in Delhi. 


The story goes through how the 'Seven" cope and adapt to the Indian situation and the difficulties Sonny faces in fulfilling his destiny.


Feel-good movies have always been my favorite genre of movies and this movie is one of the best feel-good movies I've watched recently. So that's one of the main reason why I'm writing this.

Now, it's always wonderful and proud to watch foreign movies that are about or takes place in our country. So that's another reason.


This movie almost accurately portrays the situation of present India and the view of the majority of foreigners about it. Crowded streets and stations, children playing street cricket, colorful streets, tradition, culture, everything is beautifully captured in the movie.

I think the main message that the movie is trying to say is that when we're old, we've both time and money, but our health becomes a barrier, but also if we do it right there are things that we can do to make our old age worthful. The older you do get, the more rules they're gonna try to get you to follow. So you just have to keep livin. L-I-V-I-N. 

The movie also tries to break and show the caste and religious beliefs in India. Like how we still treat low caste people as 'low' in some parts of the country. Like how a single planet can totally sabotage a marriage between two people. Like how beliefs and tradition come in the way of love.  

The movie also points out that if we take time and look at the bright side, we can cope and live with any kind of situation, anywhere, happily. 

In the movie, Michel Donelly (Maggie Smith) totally hates Indians at first. She hates every Indian food. Awaiting her affordable hip replacement, she notices a low-caste girl is sweeping the hotel and gives her a hint. We discover that she spent her entire life in service, raising children of others, and now in retirement, there is no one to take care of her.




The city of Jaipur, it's streets, culture, people, colors, everything has been beautifully captured in the movie. 


Dev Patel is just phenomenal. I think other Indian youth Bollywood actors have a lot to learn from him.

Tom Wilkinson, Judie Dench, and Maggie Smith has beautifully and affectionately carried out roles given to them. 


The Best Exotic Marygold Hotel is not some unique, thrilling, must-watch, fun packed, dashing movie. It's just a smooth, beautifully crafted movie that will make you feel good.

And I'm sure it will put a smile on your face at the end.



"Everything will be all right in the end. And if it is not all right then it is not yet the end". - unknown



***





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