it is more of a simple story of an old man and the river. and there is no groovy pop music or dancing scenes with beautiful people shaking their lean hips so it is very refreshing Indian film. i admit that it is not a great piece of world cinema but it is still worth watching if you have patience and you are used to watch films outside the Hollywood action or block busting or any other standard formula.
the old man earns his meager income rowing villagers across the river in his boat like his ancestors have done a century before him and at the same time he has to take care of his orphan grandson whose father (the old man's younger son) and mother have died in the flood a few years earlier. their life is indeed very simple, almost boring to the demanding western eye but they are totally at ease with it. the man has another older son living in the city (besides the deceased younger one) but this older son has completely forgotten his father until the son needs his father to visit the city to close a productive land deal for him. the old man and his grandson travel to the city to see their only relatives there. the elder son is a spineless creature under the power of his wife, the old mans daughter-in-law: a greedy manipulative unpleasant bitch who hates his father-in-law but tolerates him only to get that important signature in the land selling deal to earn them a lot of money. the children of the family have not even known they had a grandfather living in the country!
the director jahnu barua presents a really nasty picture of an urban westernized opportunist materialist money loving Indian middle class who has totally forgotten or is desperately trying to forget and erase its peasant roots and rural background. i think the picture thus represented in this movie may even be quite a correct one.
the old man returns home bitter and disappointed at his greedy indifferent son and the alienated family only to see that his and the little boys traditional way of living is now threatened by the construction of a bridge across the river. their life will never be the same anymore.
the old man earns his meager income rowing villagers across the river in his boat like his ancestors have done a century before him and at the same time he has to take care of his orphan grandson whose father (the old man's younger son) and mother have died in the flood a few years earlier. their life is indeed very simple, almost boring to the demanding western eye but they are totally at ease with it. the man has another older son living in the city (besides the deceased younger one) but this older son has completely forgotten his father until the son needs his father to visit the city to close a productive land deal for him. the old man and his grandson travel to the city to see their only relatives there. the elder son is a spineless creature under the power of his wife, the old mans daughter-in-law: a greedy manipulative unpleasant bitch who hates his father-in-law but tolerates him only to get that important signature in the land selling deal to earn them a lot of money. the children of the family have not even known they had a grandfather living in the country!
the director jahnu barua presents a really nasty picture of an urban westernized opportunist materialist money loving Indian middle class who has totally forgotten or is desperately trying to forget and erase its peasant roots and rural background. i think the picture thus represented in this movie may even be quite a correct one.
the old man returns home bitter and disappointed at his greedy indifferent son and the alienated family only to see that his and the little boys traditional way of living is now threatened by the construction of a bridge across the river. their life will never be the same anymore.
