AMAL (CANADA)

Expanded, feature length version of a short film by the same title released in 2004 by Toronto-born brothers Richie and Shaun Mehta. The eventful narrative was inspired by their encounter with a surprisingly honest motorized rickshaw driver during the one year they spent at college in Delhi, India.

The narrative kicks off with a brief voiceover by an old man who relates how, just prior to his death, he learned a valuable life lesson from a rickshaw wallah named Amal. The old man, Suresh (Roshan Seth), is apparently nothing but a cantankerous, quarrelsome, ailing hobo. He is later revealed to be a millionaire hotel chain owner who changes his will during his last days and leaves everything to Amal. The angriest among his relatives is Suresh's younger son, who has large gambling debts. The lawyer in charge of the large estate has 30 days to find Amal, but she unwisely enlists Suresh's business partner (Naseeruddin Shah) to assist in the search. Meanwhile, Amal is trying to collect money to pay for an operation for a street girl who stole a purse from one of his passengers and got hit by a car while running away.

Amal is a pleasant, well-made film that benefits enormously from a first-rate cast and on-location shooting in the crowded streets of Delhi_ a particularly difficult shoot because of the enormous popularity of veteran thespians Seth and Shah. The narrative is nicely paced, maintaining a consistently forward thrust. Some plot developments might be improbable but not incredible. Amal is decisively simplistic from an emotional and intellectual point of view. Realistic milieu aside, it's a fable that uses fairly archetypal characters like the virtuous, humble rickshaw wallah to illustrate how "the poorest of men can be the richest".