Amal 8.5

This is what a film festival film should be: a tender, but by no means whitewashed, look at a foreign culture and a heartwarming story with a satisfying twist at the end. The director said he hoped it would make me want to visit India, but that was furthest from my mind after watching 90 minutes of people arguing over the smallest trivia, cheating and abusing each other, not to mention stealing and killing. The general pestilence was there to contrast the goodness of our hero, Amal Kumar, who was saintly without being at all annoying. The story built inexorably, clue upon clue, to a happy ending. We knew it had to be. But when it wasn’t, we were given an alternate, unexpected ending that was even more rewarding, that made us ask, What truly makes us happy?