A Village in India

Technicolor scenes in rural Rajasthan, shot by the great Jack Cardiff

If you can blank out the condescending narration you’ll find much to admire in this gorgeous Technicolor short filmed in Rajputana (now Rajasthan). Hindu wedding celebrations, a Brahmin initiation ceremony and everyday village scenes are captured with Jack Cardiff’s marvellous cinematography. Although nominally a documentary, some scenes are clearly enacted by the locals, including a demonstration of local superstitions and the reactions to a fire that threatens to destroy the village. But, as our politically incorrect narrator helpfully points out, the village will rise again thanks to “the stubborn tenacity peculiar to peasants”.