A clearer view of overwhelming India and of Satyajit Ray

World Cinema: A visit to Satyajit Ray's native India and beguiling Kolkata helps a film critic better understand the director's work — but not in the ways he imagined. I once visited Monument Valley and tried to imagine myself in a John Ford western. It didn't work. I did the "Vertigo" tour in San Francisco and felt nothing. No matter how rooted in a specific time or place, most movies, especially the great ones, are essentially fantasias. If we should find ourselves checking out their actual ...