City of Joy

Max, an American surgeon who quit after losing a child on the operating table, arrives in Calcutta. Robbed and left on the street, he ends up at a small clinic in a poor neighbourhood. In the same neighbourhood a family newly arrived from the countryside is trying to get a foothold. The film is not interested in a white doctor's discovery. It is interested in the neighbourhood's own order: the people keeping the clinic going were already there, and what Max does is return to his own work. The film still gives him the weight, and that has been criticised since its release. The form is large production: crowded streets, monsoon sequences, big sets. The production's own story is more turbulent than the film. Shooting in Calcutta, the crew met protests accusing them of exploiting poverty, attempts to burn the sets and legal obstruction; the budget rose to twenty-seven million dollars and a last-minute withdrawal by Warner Bros nearly bankrupted the producers. The film took $14.6 million. Roland Joffé directed, from Dominique Lapierre's novel. Patrick Swayze, Om Puri, Pauline Collins and Shabana Azmi star. Who it is for: viewers who like the large-scale social dramas of the period. Who it is not for: anyone attentive to representation. The film looks at India from outside and puts the visitor, rather than the local characters, at the centre.