It’s hardly Santaland but as Christmas approaches, Montoo’s bakery in a dingy lane in central Kolkata is one of Kolkata’s hottest addresses. The man I ask for directions says there’s no sign outside, but you’ll know it from the smell of cakes baking. But when I finally get there, it’s more Dickensian than Willie Wonka -- a sweat shop for cakes. The rooms are cramped and dingy, the paint peeling, the passageways narrow. ​

West Bengal’s chief minister promised to turn Calcutta into London. But Joss Whedon in the Marvel comics saga, The Avengers, has gone backwards instead. Calcutta in the age of superheroes looks suspiciously like the one described in the City of Joy circa 1985 – cramped, squalid and leprous. Mark Ruffalo is Dr. Bruce Banner, keeping his inner Hulk under control by saving the eternally ill slum-dwellers of Calcutta.