Stories by Rabindranath Tagore

This is a series of connected stories, the tail end of one becoming the beginning of the next. The series is in Hindi with occasional English words and phrases.

The stories seem to take place in the 1950s, that is the look and feeling conveyed. Many of the stories have extended flashbacks to earlier times. The photography is beautiful and the locales fascinating.

But it is the soulful stories that will grip you. They're deeply reflective of the culture. The complexities of arranged marriages and familial situations feel authentic and original to this Westerner's eye. Music is an integral part of many of the stories, and it's wonderfully done. Characters sing to one another, with lyrics that obliquely refer to the person they're singing to. This is especially effective when the two people are in love but are for one reason or another unable to be together.

How Americans will take to this is not easy to predict. This is not a Merchant Ivory film, that is, one targeted to American and European audiences. But the production values are just as good and if you allow yourself to go with the flow, you may find this as charming as I do.