City of Joy (1992)

movie

(5626)

Country: France, UK
Genres: Drama
Release: 1992-04-17
Director: Roland Joffé
Writers: Dominique Lapierre , Mark Medoff
Language: English
Stars: Patrick Swayze , Pauline Collins , Om Puri , Shabana Azmi , Ayesha Dharker , Santu Chowdhury , Imran Badsah Khan , Art Malik , Nabil Shaban , Debatosh Ghosh
Runtime: 132 min
Awards: 1 nomination
AKA: Cidade da Alegria (Portugal, Portuguese Republic) , Градът на радостта (Bulgaria) , La città della gioia (Italy) , A Cidade Da Esperança (Brazil) , Zevk Şehri (Turkey) , Mesto radosti (Slovenia) , La ciudad de la alegría (Argentina) , City of Joy (United Kingdom) , Stadt der Freude (Germany) , Glædens by (Denmark) , Miasto radości (Poland) , La ciudad de la alegría (Peru) , La cité de la joie (France, French Republic) , Ilon kaupunki (Finland) , City of Joy , City of Joy (India) , La ciudad de la alegría (Chile) , City of Joy (Australia) , La cité de la joie (Canada) , I poli ton 'oneiron' (Greece) , Calcutta - Gledens by (Norway) , Город удовольствий (Russian Federation) , La ciudad de la alegría (Spain) , City of Joy (United States of America) , シティ・オブ・ジョイ (Japan) , Glädjens stad (Sweden) , La ciutat de l'alegria (Spain) , Örömváros (Hungary)
Plot: Independent of each other, the Pal family - parents Hazari and Kamla, and their three offspring Amrita, Shambu and Manooj - and Max Lowe arrive in Calcutta, their initial dealings there being less than positive. After losing their farm in the nearby countryside to the "money lender", the Pals are in the city in search of a better life, especially in wanting to build a dowry for Amrita who is now of marrying age. Max, a Houston based surgeon who fell into the career as a matter of family obligation, quit his job unable to cope with the emotional toll especially of losing patients, and has come to Calcutta in search of spiritual enlightenment. Their lives converge by chance in the slum neighborhood nicknamed the City of Joy, most specifically at the makeshift City of Joy Clinic and School opened and operated by Irishwoman Joy Bethel who came to Calcutta on a whim and never left. While the Pals eventual settle in the City of Joy, Joy herself tries to convince Max to provide his much needed medical services to the clinic, which he eventually but reluctantly agrees for as long as he is in Calcutta, which is longer than he may have originally planned if only in having troubles trying to get back to the US. In addition to some seeing Max as having no long term commitment to the neighborhood like the Pals who are now residents, two others issues in combination threaten the lives of those in the City of Joy, including Max, Joy and the Pals, and the livelihood of the clinic: the broadening of the services to include a nearby leper colony, some in the neighborhood who do not want to associate with them; and the control of the neighborhood by the corrupt Ghatak family - the patriarchal Godfather as he is referred to and his more violent son Ashok - who own much of the neighborhood property, own many of the neighborhood services (such as the rickshaw services, Hazari who has gotten a job as one of their rickshaw drivers) and who require "protection money" from other neighborhood businesses such as from the clinic to maintain the peace.
IMDB:tt0103976