Sometime, Somewhere

Aravindan's incandescent film is a dream come true: a perfectly plotless movie that is paradoxically crammed with incident, much of it at least notionally dramatic. It offers a richly detailed picture of life in a Kerala village in the 1950s, at the moment of transition prompted by the arrival of electricity. The tyranny of a storyline is kept at bay by spreading the focus around a huge cast; what binds it all together is the unique poetry of the film language, full of unorthodox editing patterns and compositions. Aravindan looks more and more like India's answer to Ozu, but his poetry is less rigorous, more intuitive, and possibly even more beautiful.