After many friends had advised me to watch the movie Darjeeling Limited , I finally had the opportunity to view it during a long-haul flight to India. I really liked the rather bizzare plot of three American brothers who rejoined in an Indian train to find each other and themselves again. A nicely told story on human limitations, caught in their own patterns and struggling to reach beyond. At the same a heart-warming example how differences can be overcome if one tries hard enough to make important relationships work. Here is the trailer for a sneak-preview.
Overall I liked the movie a lot and would recommend to see it. On the other hand, as a Westerner living four years in India, I could see a few flaws how India and Indians are depicted. Not to mention that this movie would be perceived as insulting for the typical Indian audience which is used to cheer to the prim & proper Bollywood-world of the Sharuk Khans and Aishwarya Rays. There, even a movie-kiss is unheard of to the family cheering to their heroes. Especially, the role of the extremely pretty train-attendant Rita who voluptuously seduces one of the brothers in the toilet, would be considered entirely impossible in an Indian movie, not to mention Indian society. Although I can assure that "everything is there in India", Indian women are way-way-way more conservative and restrained in the interaction with men than depicted here. Yet overall, India is depicted in a sympathetic way, sometimes with its chaos indeed as it is, and provides the essential breeding-ground for this lovely story.
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