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At Last, Long Journey Finds Audiences in America

Aseem Chhabra

Nearly two years after it was completed and commercially released in parts of the world, Such A Long Journey, the film version of Rohinton Mistry's 1991 award winning novel, has finally opened in the US. The Shooting Gallery, New York-based independent film distribution and production company released the film on March 24 for a limited two-week run in 17 cities across the country.

With the backdrop of the 1971 Bangladesh liberation movement, Such A Long Journey is a story of a group of Parsis in Bombay, whose daily lives get impacted by a complicated intrigue of money laundering to finance the Indian government's war efforts.

Such A Long Journey is directed by Sturla Gunnarsson, an Icelandic director who now lives in Canada. The film stars Roshan Seth as Mistry's humble and deeply troubled protagonist, Gustad Noble. Other major characters in the film are played by Soni Razdan, Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Ranjit Chowdhry and Pearl Padamsee.

Mistry's novel is widely regarded by critics and readers as a landmark piece of creative work in the post-Midnight's Children era. However, Gunnarsson's film had a less than kind reception from film critics in the US.

Writing for The New York Times, A O Scott found the film 'studded with memorable scenes and arresting performances, most notably Mr (Roshan) Seth's.' However, he found the film 'confusing' and added that in following its details, a background understanding of the history of the Indian sub-continent might be helpful.

'The main problem with Such A Long Journey is its storytelling,' Scott wrote. 'There is simply too much happening, and Mr Gunnarsson is not very good at interweaving or subordinating plots.'

To add to its own confusion, The New York Times made an error in the caption for the photograph that accompanied Scott's review. In the caption, actor Chowdhary was identified as Roshan Seth.

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times also praised Seth's performance, calling him one of India's most internationally renowned actors.

'Gustad is so exceptionally well-drawn, his simple humanity so staunch, and Seth's portrayal of a good man whose capacity for courage and understanding grows under duress so transcendent that the film is ultimately quite moving,' Thomas wrote.

However, Thomas, who once walked out of a screening of Raj Kapoor's Shri 420, said that Such A Long Journey 'lacked coherence, with too many questions raised only to be dropped for several reels.'

He added that 'there is considerable cornball humor that strikes an artificial note, and the film, which means to be a comedy, is consistently more effective and credible in its serious moments.'

The film found one major supporter -- the influential print and television critic Roger Ebert said in the Chicago Tribune that Gunnarsson's work is 'so rich in atmosphere it makes Western films look pale and under-populated.'

Ebert, who recently visited Calcutta and wrote several pieces on the Indian film industry, said that Mistry's novels 'have the droll irony of Dickens.'

'(The) film is interesting not simply in terms of its plot, but because of the medium it moves through -- the streets of Bombay. It suggests a society that has more poverty than ours, but it is not necessarily poorer, because it has a richer texture of daily life,' Ebert said.

Life in India he said seems to be complex and busy, adding that it would be hard to imagine Indians having time to 'brood and isolate.'

'American Beauty could not be an Indian story,' he said.

Such A Long Journey opened for two weeks in the following cities: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Baltimore, MD, Natick, MA, Chicago, Evanston, IL, Richmond Height, OH, Dallas, Houston, TX, Detroit, MI, Orlando, FL, Salt Lake City, UT, Seattle, WA, Tucson, AZ, Philadelphia, PA and Washington DC.

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