Return to Rajapur

Caught this at the Tribeca Film Festival. It's a plodding, dull tale about a young American girl and her adventures in India. The characters are one-dimensional, the plot predictable, and the acting risible. Some nice scenery, and it's decently shot, but there's nothing enlightening to be found concerning the rich theme of two different cultures clashing and then merging. There's a great movie to be made about Westerners adrift in India, but this sure isn't it. Hard to see who the audience is for this film. It's certainly not sophisticated enough for the art-house crowd. And with no well-known actors and the slow pace, it's as far from crossover as you can get. Maybe the director's second film will be better.

I thought the film was extremely well done. The cinematography is exceptional as well as the acting which evokes real emotions from the audience. The soundtrack is well connected to the overall themes of the film and plays as a great addition to its presentation. I look forward to Nanada Anands next project which I am sure will be just as inspirational as this one. If your in the mood for both a cultural and romantic experience, I highly recommend seeing this film. I feel that the high quality of its production is comparable to films such as The English Patient, and Monsoon Wedding. I hope to see Jai Singh, whom plays the main protagonists in more mainstream films, his delivery was superb.

Maudlin fantasy of being swept off your feet by 'exotic' India, which apparently consists of well-kept palace hotels and desert sunsets. Really, the Indian Tourist Board couldn't have put it better themselves. The plot is utterly contrived, the romance silly and unconvincing, the drama so overcooked it's as if someone left it out to bake for weeks in the Thar Desert sun.

How 22 year-old Samantha, shy as a bunny and totally clueless, ever got to India on her own is a challenge to the imagination. As is the reason her mother married a vain alcoholic with clear designs on her money. And this is only the beginning to the chain of illogic that runs throughout the film and governs every predictable turn. Shamelessly romantic view of India and human relations is likely to make your stomach turn. But for anyone who's a genuine fan of syrupy soap opera, I guess this cosmetically-enhanced version of Rajasthan actually fits the material quite well.

Although I think that the cinematography in the movie was superb, and I was intrigued by the portrayal of Jeremy (Justin Theroux) as an alcoholic, I was most interested in the character of Samantha (Kelli Garner). You may remember Kelli from Aviator as the young Faith Domergue.

Although Samantha is in her early 20's, she clearly has led a very sheltered life, and is from an extremely wealthy family. Upon arrival in the ancient town of Rajapur, she was clearly bewildered by the dramatic contrasts between this and her previous life experiences, but I couldn't understand her facial expressions. My immediate reaction was that this was a "valley girl" who had been miscast in the part, but then I realized that she was like the 10 year old Lucy in The Chronicles of Narnia. They were both dazed and overwhelmed by the world that they were surrounded by.

As soon as I thought of Samantha as a child instead of a young adult, everything became much clearer. She had never experienced anything like this in her life and didn't know how to react. It was as if she was in a glass bubble. As the film developed, she started to develop. I could see the glass breaking and the young adult emerging from the child.

Thank you, Kelli for a moving and enlightening performance.

I have been to India 3 times for a total of 7 months and seen over 1000 films in the past 10 years. This film is a great piece of celluloid.

It captures a romantic view of Rajapur that is slightly saccharin but so enjoyably so! The acting is good and the plot full of romance well portrayed and drama well developed. The young Samantha (Kelli Garner) is, however, too bubbly and vapid which bothered me, but I was willing to overlook this for the brilliantly played scenes from 1988 with Manoj Bajpai (Jai Singh), the beautiful and enchanting Lynn Collins (Sara Reardon) and love-to-hate him handsome asshole Justin Theroux (Jeremy).

The plot device of flashback-intergenerational-intrigue works really well despite being over- used and this film is reminiscent of, perhaps, the English Patient.

It really is a fun, romantic, dramatic, entertaining film; it's not too deep, but very well produced, especially considering it was shot in 5 weeks!!! (So Anand said at the Tribeca Film Festival)... (although one underexposed low-contrast nighttime scene really bothered me).