That is why I have so much trouble approaching Ray’s films as “foreign.” They are not foreign. They are about Indians, and I am not Indian, but Ray’s characters have more in common with me than I do with the comic-strip characters of Hollywood. Ray’s people have genuine emotions and ambitions, like the people next door and the people in Peoria and the people in Kansas City. There is not a person reading this review who would not identify immediately and deeply with the characters in The Big City. By contrast, Hollywood films with exploding cigarette lighters and gasping starlets and idiot
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