City of Joy (1992)

Hazari Pal lives in a small village in Bihar, India, with his dad, mom, wife, Kamla, daughter, Amrita, and two sons, Shambhu and Manooj. As the Pal are unable to repay the loan they had ... See full summary »

Director:

Roland Joffé

Writers:

Dominique Lapierre (book), Mark Medoff (screenplay)

Stars:

Patrick Swayze, Om Puri, Pauline Collins

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Patrick Swayze	...	Max Lowe
Om Puri	...	Hazari Pal
Pauline Collins	...	Joan Bethel
Shabana Azmi	...	Kamla H. Pal
Ayesha Dharker	...	Amrita H. Pal
Santu Chowdhury	...	Shambu H. Pal
Imran Badsah Khan	...	Manooj H. Pal
Art Malik	...	Ashok Ghatak
Nabil Shaban	...	Anouar
Debatosh Ghosh	...	Ram Chander
Suneeta Sengupta	...	Poomina
Mansi Upadhyay	...	Meeta
Shyamanand Jalan	...	Ghatak - Godfather
Shyamal Sengupta	...	Gangooly - Con man
Rudraprasad Sengupta	...	Chomotkar

Storyline

Hazari Pal lives in a small village in Bihar, India, with his dad, mom, wife, Kamla, daughter, Amrita, and two sons, Shambhu and Manooj. As the Pal are unable to repay the loan they had taken years ago from a moneylender, their land and property are auctioned, and they are rendered homeless. Hazari and his family re-locate to Calcutta with hopes of starting life anew, save some money and go back to Bihar, as well as get Amrita married. Things do not go as planned, as they lose their entire savings to a con-man, Gangooly, who took their money as rent by pretending to be a landlord. Then Hazari gets an opportunity to take up driving a rickshaw manually through a local godfather, Ghatak. He gets to meet a American, Dr. Max Lowe, and together they strike up a friendship along with a local social worker, Joan Bethel. Misunderstandings crop up between Joan and the Godfather, resulting in the shutting down of their shanty medical clinic. When Hazari sides with Joan, his rickshaw is taken ...

---

Plot Keywords:

leper | india | hope | protection racket | hospital | 

---

Taglines:

He was a man who couldn't care less... until he met a man who couldn't care more.

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for scenes of brief strong violence

Details

Country:

France UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 April 1992 (USA)

Also Known As:

La cité de la joie

Filming Locations:

Calcutta, West Bengal, India

Box Office

Budget:

$27,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$14,683,921 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Allied Filmmakers, Lightmotive, Pricel

Technical Specs

Runtime:

132 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Among the problems that beset the production were fire-bombings, mass demonstrations, media criticism, accusations of murder, a skyrocketing budget that eventually settled at the $27 million mark, and Warner Brothers' 11th hour pullout that nearly bankrupted the producers.

---

Quotes

Hasari Pal: The gods have not made it easy to be a human being.
Max Lowe: No they haven't. But I guess that's why it feels so goddamn wonderful to beat the odds.

---

Connections

Referenced in Animaniacs: Video Review/When Mice Ruled the Earth (1993)

---

Soundtracks

Original folk score
Richard Blackford

User Reviews

Pretty Good

Although the movie might not have the best direction or not one of the best laid picture it still has a lot of good things. If you have visited India (where it has been primarily filmed) and especially Kolkotta city you would see the realistic nature of movie. It depicts the day to day life of a person below the poverty line. It also highlights the morality of foreigners and NGO's who are trying to help the needy. Very often they have to face resistance from local authorities who either want to exploit the masses or think the foreigners are trying to religiously exploit them. In nut shell I liked the movie.