City Of Joy: A film analysis. Talks about the relationships in the film.

What happens when everything you've ever known seems to be a lie? When everything you've worked so hard for in your life seems to come crashing down on you, who do you turn to? You need to find yourself, to re-evaluate your priorities. What better place to do that than in The City Of Joy.

The movie The City Of Joy is about a wealthy American doctor named Max Lowe. After he lost a patient on the operating table, Max spontaneously decides to leave America and travel to India in the hope of "finding himself." Not long after he arrives in Calcutta, Max is attacked by a group of thugs and left without money or a passport.

An Indian man named Hasari comes to Max's rescue. Hasari had left his farming community to come to the city, only to be overwhelmed by its dirt, crime, and overcrowding. Despite their poverty, Hasari and his family take Max in and bring him to a medical clinic in the City of Joy, one of the poorest slums in the city.

[Portrait of Charlie Parker, Tommy Potter, and Max...

Max Weinberg watches as his son takes over the dru...

A physician performs a routine checkup on a patien...

Max is brought to the clinic run by Joan Bethel, an Irish-American nun. When Joan discovers that Max is a doctor, she pleads with him to join her in running the clinic. Max declines, claiming he is a "non-practicing" surgeon. After an unplanned baby delivery for a woman whose baby is jeopardized, Max begins to see things in a new light. He signs on to help at the clinic, and his attitude about India's citizens and its way of life changes drastically.

The relationships in this movie are very moving. Hasari runs his rickshaw through a monsoon to provide for his daughter's dowry, while Max defies the local godfather by staying in India to be with his friends and patients.