'Cowboys in India' finds fun in turmoil
"Cowboys in India" begins as a documentary about corrupt mining company, Vedanta, in the forests of India.
Director Simon Chambers is on a mission to expose the pollution and downright evil the company is inflicting upon the people in small villages in India. The company is working to build up a modern infrastructure, despite pleas against the construction. The destruction is both physical and emotional as the communities revolt against modernization.
Chambers requests help from two locals, the lovable Satya and Daya. In exchange for daily meals and several hundred rupees a day, the pair takes Chambers around India, helping him gather footage for what he believes will be no more than an expository documentary.
But soon the film becomes more about the relationship between Satya, Daya and Chambers than the corruptness of the corporation. Their friendship is both comical and heartbreaking as the Indian pair struggles to help Chambers despite several threats on their own lives for doing so.
After the screening Saturday, Chambers discussed his relationship with Satya and Daya.
"Looking back, I realized how devoted to trying to help me they were," Chambers said. "It took me a long time to realize they were going out of their way to help me."
The film's final product surprised Chambers.
"When I went there, I was trying to find a way to make a film about something going on but it had to have people in it," he said.
Satya, he said, was just the first person he met who spoke English.
