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I got suckered into this film on BravoTV believing I was looking at a documentary, then soon it's real nature began to show itself. Extremely well written, acted, directed, and crafted as well as a BBC documentary. If one only watched the cinematography, this film is remarkably beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed this film and count it with "The Secret Cinema", "Karma Cafe", "The Music Box" and "Duck Amok" as my favorite short films. Needless to say, I didn't rest until I found it's repeat broadcast on Bravo's schedule. This film made me aware of the towering talent of Jim Broadbent. His performances in "Iris", "Little Voice" and "Moulin Rouge" have all been treats and I'll never again miss a Broadbent film.

The film departments of UCLA and Southern California University had an annual film competition for students from both schools at a time when they and New York University were about the only schools in the country offering a degree in cinema. In 1967, I attended the showing at UCLA's Royce Hall, and George Lucas's THX-1138 was a standout work among many very good ones. Not only was it the audience's favorite, but the judges awarded it best picture. Lucas was called to the podium to accept his award. He seemed nervous and shy at the microphone, but then startled as he was interrupted at the microphone, apparently a surprise to all on stage, by a lawyer from Warner Brothers who announced that Warners was offering whoever won the competition the opportunity to turn it into a feature. That was of course George. It seemed an eternity while he stood speechless, mouth open. Warners already had the young Francis Ford Coppola under contract, so they assigned him as producer to George. I then saw the resulting feature "THX 1138" in 1971 at a theater in Hollywood. It was not great commercial success, but as we all know, the success of the George Lucas career is legendary.

I went into the screening not knowing much about it, nor the book from which it was taken. It won me over on its own merits. The feelings were genuine, the characters warm and complex. The contrast of cultures was demeaning to neither Bengali or American, and yet the interplay between them was revealing and at times funny. The performances of Tabu, Irfan Khan and Kal Penn were genuine and multidimensional and brought life to their roles. For those who don't like reading subtitles, there aren't that many, since much of the soundtrack is in English. This movie is sticking with me in a very pleasant way and I'm enjoying reflecting on its scenes and characters. I'll be looking for other films from it's director Mira Nair. I had the same reaction to another woman director from India when I saw Deepa Mehta's "Water" last year which garnered an Oscar nomination for best foreign film. This is movie for people with a heart and a brain, but most of all a heart.