WHEN FOUR FRIENDS MEET
(JAHAAN CHAR YAAR MIL JAAYEIN)

Rahul Roy
India 2000 | 43 Min. | BetaSP, OmeU

A work­ing class dis­trict on the out­skirts of Delhi is home to four ”best friends”, Bunty, Kamal, Sanjay and Sanju, who were accom­pa­nied by the film­mak­er Rahul Roy over six months in order to learn about their way of life and their world of expe­ri­ences. Their young lives are shaped by deal­ing with the harsh real­i­ty of Indian daily life and the burden of ful­fill­ing their duties from early child­hood on, which actu­al­ly belong to the world of adults. What’s worse is that the rapid­ly chang­ing sur­round­ings com­pli­cate the abil­i­ty to ori­en­tate one­self. In addi­tion the bal­ance between old-fash­ioned expec­ta­tions of par­ents and the shiny image of the ideal world of Bol­ly­wood films seems to be at risk. The film­mak­er enables the audi­ence to expe­ri­ence how the young­sters’ dreams, hopes and beliefs still try to and occa­sion­al­ly turn into real­i­ty. Close to real­i­ty and touch­ing – a film that resem­bles a friend for some­body else. And so one regrets the film to end after 43 minutes.