City of Joy

City of Joy (1992) is a drama you can watch online on iFILM. Max Lowe, a Houston surgeon worn down by American medicine after losing a patient on the table, walks away from it all and flies to Calcutta to find himself. On his very first day he is jumped and robbed, left with no money and no passport.

Shaken and bitter, Max ends up in the slums the locals wryly call the city of joy. A farmer named Hasari, who moved to the city to keep his family fed, takes him in, and so does a struggling free clinic that is desperate for hands. Bit by bit the cynic who couldn't care less gets pulled into a shared fight against poverty, disease and the strongmen who prey on the poor. Patrick Swayze plays Max, Indian actor Om Puri plays Hasari, with Pauline Collins and Shabana Azmi alongside.

It was directed by Roland Joffé, the filmmaker behind The Killing Fields and The Mission, and his pull toward people caught inside enormous hardship shows in every frame. The story comes from Dominique Lapierre's novel. A hundred and thirty-two minutes with no sugar coating — one for viewers who love dramas about clashing cultures and the quiet dignity of poor neighborhoods. Stream City of Joy (1992) online on iFILM.