Justifying his bullet-train plans even before he became the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi as Gujarat CM, used the example of China before a group of industrialists once. He claimed he'd told Manmohan Singh, the PM then, that what India really needs are modern showcases to the world. It's not that the rest of China looks like Shanghai. But that's the staggeringly futuristic image we conjure of current-day Middle Kingdom, since that's what we see most often.

And, this is true. Although I've never been to China — never been curious enough to either — there is hardly a better insider's peek you're likely to get to one of the world's best-kept, contemporary, societal secrets as Jia Zhanke's Mandarin film, Ash Is Purest White, that opens in (select) Indian theatres this Friday.