Film Review: City of Joy (1992)

The most successful films in filmography of British director Roland Joffé – The Killing Fields and Mission - were epic dramas set in Third World countries. Another film that used similar formula, 1992 drama City of Joy, failed to repeat such success.

The film is based on the eponymous novel by French author Dominique Lapierre. The “City of Joy” is nickname for Calcutta, where the plot takes place and where two very different men arrive at the beginning. Max Lowe (played by Patrick Swayze) is Houston-based surgeon who, after losing a young patient, becomes troubled by his conscience and travels to India in search of spiritual enlightement. Hazari Pal (played by Om Puri) is farmer from Bihar who lost his land to drought and money lenders and travels to Calcutta with wife and three children hoping to find some work. Both men experience hardships – Hazari is cheated out of rent money, while Max has his wallet and documents stolen, forcing him to stay in the city longer than expected. Hazari rescues Max during robbery at streets of Calcutta slums and two men become friends. In the meantime, Max meets Joan Bethel (played by Pauline Collins), Irish activist who has dedicated her life to betterment of Calcutta slum dwellers. She wants to convince Max to join her efforts and help her set up and maintain local community centre that provides school and basic medical services. This puts her in conflict with Mr. Gathak (played by Shyamanand Jalan), local gang boss who controls the neighbourhood and, just like his ruthless son Ashok (played by Art Malik) sees community centre as threat to gang’s authority.

Original novel was in many ways inspired by lives of real life Western activists in Calcutta, as well as Mother Theresa. Script by Mark Medoff doesn’t want to hide that and wears author’s good intentions on sleeve. Characters are simplistic and one-dimensional, with idealism of Joan and Max being well-matched with moral clarity of Hazari and being in sharp contrast with evil brutality of Ashok. Joffé, like in his previous films, had large budget on his disposal, which allowed him to show seemingly banal streets of busy and impoverished South Asian megalopolis as an exciting and unusual place. Joffé also found opportunity to shoot some mass scenes, especially near the end when street confrontation becomes increasingly violent. Cast is good, especially Om Puri who is wonderful in the role of impoverished and initially clueless farmer who tries hard to preserve his family and dignity. Pauline Collins is decent in the role of activist, while Patrick Swayze, who, at first looks too Hollywood-like for such un-Hollywood story, has to struggle a bit before being accepted by audience as genuine protagonist. Art Malik as villain is, on the other hand, too limited. The main problem for City of Joy is, however, episodic nature of the plot that leads to lack of pace, which is going to be addressed only near the end when Medoff and Joffé are forced to wrap things up. This happens more than two hours afterwards and patience of the audience is going to be tested. However, those who manage to watch the film till the end will be rewarded with some nice production values and City of Joy can be recommended both to Swayze fans and cinephiles interested in rare examples of modern Western cinema dealing with Global South issues.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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