Netflix has allowed me to see this masterpiece

I find it difficult to describe my feelings for this film.

No I am not Indian, do not have South Asian family, etc.

But I do live in a poor, backwards state in the US.... and comparing life here to life on the coast.... it is crazy how some of the similarities were in stories from my grandparents (who did not always have running water, electricity, indoor toilet, etc, who struggled to be farmers, whose relatives went to the city jobs and disappeared). I don't understand everything about it but I understood enough to be moved deeply.

The caste system reminds me in some ways of the race system in the "old south", for example people not being allowed to interact with others, people not wanting to change their ways. (the "old south" is not that old... only in the 1960s did de-segregation truly begin). Many people from the rural poor parts of America moved to bigger cities for a better life, but there is always that conflict between where you came from and where you went. "Selling Out" so to speak.

I do not mean to compare the poor people in this film with what is in America today, lets not go there. But let's be clear... America did not always have free education, running water, electricity, etc, and people did die of malnutrition, and it wasn't that long ago. (And then there were the electricity blackouts caused by corrupt officials at Enron a few years ago...)

Some of the discussions on this board remind me of a book "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck... written about the Dust Bowl in the 1930s in the American Great Plains. people from the Dust Bowl denounced the book as "trash" because it depicted the poor conditions of people at the time. But it was simply being realistic about the situation people lived in. But where that book was extremely downhearted and bleak, this film is hopeful and progressive...

There is something very profound and touching about the movie, in that it is about politics without being judgemental and it is about economics without being preachy. When they challenge him to say India is the Greatest Country.... it is funny because the exact same thing happened to Barack Obama in the elections - people demanded that he say that America was the greatest country ever, and he hesitated for a second .... then there was a big debate about the idea called "American Exceptionalism". How can you face your problems if you cannot talk about them.

I don't know exactly why but I know the effect on me watching.

The fact that they intermingled it with a really, really nice and sad love story and family story is .. truly making this a great film of all time.

Thanks for reading.