In India Song, Marguerite Duras effectively evokes colonial India of the thirties, contrasting the indolent life of the colonists with the squalor and suffering that lie just outside their gates and consciousness—though her camera never ventures from the abodes of the wealthy. The story concerns a beautiful woman (Delphine Seyrig), the wife of a diplomat, suffering from what Duras has called “colonial sickness.” Despite numerous suitors, she lives in a private desolation that none can enter, haunted by the image of a beggar woman who personifies for her the cruelty of the colonial system.