This is a touching story about the early days of a young married couple in mid-twentieth century Delhi. Prem Sagar is an inexperienced school teacher not much older than his students, underpaid and browbeaten by his superiors. His young wife, who hardly knows him because the marriage was arranged, is barely literate, lonely, and misses her young friends from her earlier years. The two newlyweds aren't getting along at all, so Prem sends for his mother to "help" his inexperienced and lackadaisical wife, with predictable results. Indu packs her things and returns to her own mother for awhile, while Prem dallies with the idea of taking up the religious life and following a local swami. What suffuses his face with a look of religious ecstasy, however, is the news that his wife has come back to him.
During Indu's absence, Prem meets an intense and exuberant young man from Pennsylvania, infatuated with Indian religion who, amusingly, can only talk of Indian spirituality, while Prem can only respond with remarks about India's burgeoning material progress. Ernest lives with two other Westerners in love with Indian culture, but the trio seems more like an Indian idea of such an eccentric group than the real thing.
The exterior and interior scenes of Indian life will appeal to those who may be familiar with R.K. Narayan's stories of India. Now we can actually see the streets, crumbling ruins, flowering trees, trains, sense the heat, look inside real Indian rooms, hear Indian poetry sung and how women and men talk to each other. A lot of the acting was good, with Durga Khote as the mother, Leela Naidu as Indu, and Shashi Kapoor outstanding. The DVD soundtrack was not good, and there should have been English subtitles. The meaning of some scenes could only be generally understood; the dialog wasn't comprehensible.
During Indu's absence, Prem meets an intense and exuberant young man from Pennsylvania, infatuated with Indian religion who, amusingly, can only talk of Indian spirituality, while Prem can only respond with remarks about India's burgeoning material progress. Ernest lives with two other Westerners in love with Indian culture, but the trio seems more like an Indian idea of such an eccentric group than the real thing.
The exterior and interior scenes of Indian life will appeal to those who may be familiar with R.K. Narayan's stories of India. Now we can actually see the streets, crumbling ruins, flowering trees, trains, sense the heat, look inside real Indian rooms, hear Indian poetry sung and how women and men talk to each other. A lot of the acting was good, with Durga Khote as the mother, Leela Naidu as Indu, and Shashi Kapoor outstanding. The DVD soundtrack was not good, and there should have been English subtitles. The meaning of some scenes could only be generally understood; the dialog wasn't comprehensible.