MUBI

I loved the look, the pacing, the way the Shakespearean lines play off the film’s plot, and especially Felicity Kendal & Shashi Kapoor. It avoids a lot of the cliches found in many films that deal with cross-cultural dealings and interracial romace. It deals with abstract questions of art, beauty and truth as well as material issues of sexism, cultural consumption, immigration, postcolonialism and more. The magical thing is that it raises so many ideas without becoming preachy or letting them get in the way of the development of the plot and characters. It never fell into unnecessary exposition. 

I just finished it a few minutes ago,& have mixed feelings about the ending that I’m still sorting out. I think my favorite part is how it played with the idea of the gaze (spectators and audience, expats and natives, the way women need to perform for the male gaze, etc).     

This movie certainly had its moments, primarily when it focused on the separation between Lizzie’s life as an actor and Sanju’s (and the audience’s) life as a spectator. Perhaps a bit of sociopolitical allegory there, if you want to stretch the story? It’s not implausible, given the (over)abundance of talk about how India isn’t the same anymore for the British acting troupe.

I wish Ivory had chosen to end the picture after Sanju and Lizzie’s final scene together. Much more poignant than the standard farewell.