India: Matri Bhumi

The film takes a look at then-current India, from the crowded cities to the rural farm country, and to large civil engineering projects intended to modernize and make more accessible remote and inhospitable areas. The color footage is nice to look at (there's a lengthy prologue to the copy I watched explaining the recent restoration efforts made to make the film more presentable after being available only in faded and deteriorated prints for decades), and the narration is okay. However, for some reason Rossellini decided to stage a handful of scenes and situations for dramatic effect, only to have these portions undermine the documentary effort elsewhere. These scripted scenes include a clumsy marriage proposal between a farmer and a traveling performer, another couple suffering marital strife against the background of a major construction project, and a performing spider monkey who loses her master and wanders the countryside.