The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) on Netflix
Seven British retirees move to Jaipur to live in the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, advertised as a luxury retirement home. Sonny Kapoor runs it and has overstated its charms.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.2/10104,513 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes77%
Trailer
Plot summary
Widowed Evelyn Greenslade, judge Graham Dashwood, married couple Jean and Douglas Ainslie, former housekeeper Muriel Donnelly, Madge Hardcastle and Norman Cousins each answer an advertisement for a cheap, luxurious retirement home in Jaipur. On arrival they find a dilapidated building run by Sonny Kapoor, whose claims about the place outrun its condition. Evelyn, left short of money after her husband's debts, looks for work; Graham walks the city he grew up in; Muriel arranges the hip operation that Britain's waiting lists delay; Jean and Douglas have less savings than they expected. Sonny needs paying guests to impress his brothers in Delhi, their mother, and the investors behind his plan.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The cast and the director were invited by Arvind Singh Mewar, the Maharaja of Udaipur, to his lavish Diwali celebrations and firework display, as well as to a royal wedding held at the Rambagh Palace Hotel in Jaipur.
- Production designer Alan MacDonald, who won Best Art Direction in a Contemporary Film from the Art Directors Guild for the work, deliberately made the interiors clash, with "interesting furniture inspired by colonial India, mismatched local textiles, all mixed together with modern plastic bits and pieces".
- The producers were taken with the concept of outsourcing retirement, "taking our outsourcing of everyday tasks like banking and customer service one step further", and commissioned screenwriter Ol Parker to turn the idea into a screenplay.
- Ravla Khempur, chosen as the site of the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, is a real equestrian hotel that was originally the palace of a tribal chieftain, about an hour and a half outside Udaipur in the village of Khempur.
- The filmmakers initially had difficulty finding a studio: Working Title Films rejected their proposals, considering the film unmarketable, before they aligned with Participant Media, Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ and Blueprint Pictures.
