Having seen a few of Deepa Mehta's movies recently this movie was certainly a powerful story and was well filmed. But there seems to be a quality about Mehta's movies which seem to be so cerebral that they detract from the emotive intensity of what is India.
The stories she finds are so compelling and yet I believe that the movie-making and acting are not stitched together as well. Take away the historical setting and it seems to collapse not because you removed one critical element, but because it is the only substantive element.
I can see why people enjoyed this movie, but I wish there was more. I wish she had dealt more deeply with the group of friends and the tension between their own religious differences. It was more about the partition happening around and I believe Ms. Mehta might have let slip an opportunity to have made the whole tale far more poignant. The setting of the Parsee family's nanny seemed to have very little relevance in the story - the professed Parsee inclination to side with whoever is in power does not contribute to the story.
Instead it is a potent spectacle as one watches from the outside, but there is no overt invitation or quiet pull-in to the movie.
The stories she finds are so compelling and yet I believe that the movie-making and acting are not stitched together as well. Take away the historical setting and it seems to collapse not because you removed one critical element, but because it is the only substantive element.
I can see why people enjoyed this movie, but I wish there was more. I wish she had dealt more deeply with the group of friends and the tension between their own religious differences. It was more about the partition happening around and I believe Ms. Mehta might have let slip an opportunity to have made the whole tale far more poignant. The setting of the Parsee family's nanny seemed to have very little relevance in the story - the professed Parsee inclination to side with whoever is in power does not contribute to the story.
Instead it is a potent spectacle as one watches from the outside, but there is no overt invitation or quiet pull-in to the movie.