A FILM NOT SOON FORGOTTEN...
This is a superb film that gives the viewer a bird's-eye view into the plight of India's urban street children. It is done through the experience of young Krishna, an illiterate, country bumpkin of a boy, who is abandoned by his mother at a circus and told not to come home until he has five hundred rupees for having broken something that belonged to his brother. While Krishna is on an errand, the circus packs up and leaves town, and he is left alone to fend for himself.
Krishna uses his last few rupees to travel to a city, which by luck of the draw turns out to be Bombay. Thrust into the life of the street children of Bombay, living among the pimps, hustlers, drug addicts, prostitutes, and throw away children that proliferate in India's urban settlements, a modern day jungle, Krishna struggles to survive. His resourcefulness holds him in good stead. He quickly develops some street smarts and forms attachments. He struggles to earn and save money, so that he can return home to his...
A FILM NOT SOON FORGOTTEN....
This is a superb film that gives the viewer a bird's eye view into the plight of India's urban street children. It is done through the experience of young Krishna, an illiterate, country bumpkin of a boy, who is abandoned by his mother at a circus and told not to come home until he has five hundred rupees for having broken something that belonged to his brother. While Krishna is on an errand, the circus packs up and leaves town, and he is left alone to fend for himself.
Krishna uses his last few rupees to travel to a city, which by luck of the draw turns out to be Bombay. Thrust into the life of the street children of Bombay, living among the pimps, hustlers, drug addicts, prostitutes, and throw away children that proliferate in India's urban settlements, a modern day jungle, Krishna struggles to survive. His resourcefulness holds him in good stead. He quickly develops some street smarts and forms attachments. He struggles to earn and save money, so that he can return home to his...
A rose in the gutter
Wow, what a tremendous story of innocence lost, of the anonymity of the powerless poor in the big city, and of the global theme of vices that trap such lost souls and suck them dry. This is a monumental film that touched me on so many levels that I can't put it all into words.
Almost the entire film takes place on the streets of Bombay, far from the "Bollywood" silliness of musical melodrama that we in the US usually associate with Indian cinema. These are runaways, prostitutes, junkies, and thieves, but director Mira Nair refuses to treat any of them as props or cliches, showing them as nothing less than fully fleshed human beings. The lead character is an innocent little boy who finds himself thrust into this world, and he becomes closest to two equally innocent young girls who are also on the verge of being swallowed up by the filth around them. Their journey through these few weeks is heartbreaking and chilling, and the ending will stay with you for quite some...
Click to Editorial Reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment