Django isn't Rails-inspired - they were developed at around the same time, with no real awareness of each other (at first). As to the merits of "form" classes

Django isn't Rails-inspired - they were developed at around the same time, with no real awareness of each other (at first). As to the merits of "form" classes and post handlers, I think the complexity is only there if you need it, if you're doing something more interesting (read: complex) than CRUD-type inserts/updates and basic validation (if that's all you're doing, ModelForms are pretty close to magical and light on syntax).