A Fascinating Look at Post-Colonial India

gavin6942

Three adolescent girls growing up in Bengal, India, learn their lessons in life after falling for an older American soldier.

While I am not at all familiar with the cinema of India, my impression is that it probably did not get started until the 1960s. Maybe this is wrong. But Jean Renoir's "River" may be the first significant film to come out of India following the country's independence in 1948.

The "coming of age" aspect of the three girls is very interesting and a good narrative, but more important is the way Indian culture and religion is shown. When did the West become interested in India? Long ago, surely. But there seems to be a Renaissance mid-1900s with such writers as Christopher Isherwood. This film, no doubt, helped push that Renaissance.

score 8/10

gavin6942 15 May 2015

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3239197/