Such a Long Journey
by Gerald Peary
Once upon a time, the Persian conquerors reigned proud in India. But in 1971,
the year of Such a Long Journey, the family of Persian descent at the
center of this film find themselves squashed together in a lower-middle-class
Bombay apartment overlooking a densely crowded sewage-reeking slum. The father,
Gustad (Roshan Seth), dreams longingly of his patrician, privileged childhood.
Now he's a lowly bank clerk who can't get even his family to respect him. His
wife (Soni Razdan) shoves him around; his teenage son rebels against him,
balking at dad's plan for him to become an engineer.
Suddenly, there's a chance of adventure for this Bombay Walter Mitty. An old
friend demands a favor, a delivery of a package, and that package turns out to
be full of money, part of a guerrilla plot to free Bangladesh from Pakistan.
That's the set-up. Unfortunately, this plot goes nowhere much, and filmmaker
Sturia Gunnarsson, a Canadian, treats even the boiling-over India-Pakistan war
with Great White North politeness. There's nothing particularly wrong with
Such a Long Journey, but it's not exactly incendiary, as it follows the
Merchant Ivory way competently, numbly, by the numbers. At Natick.
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