A Passage to Ottawa

A seven-year-old boy, Omi is sent from India to live with an Uncle in Ottawa. Nobody is told that his mother is dying. The teenage daughter of the family, Safia is given the task of watching over Omi. On one of their outings, Amy meets a black man, Roland, who is a tour guide in his thirties, and they become romantically involved. Omi is convinced that Roland is a superhero, who will save his mother and bring her to Ottawa, so he assists with their clandestine meetings.

The acting is in the low-key, naturalistic, Canadian style, which keeps a very light mood to the drama. The characters are interesting and endearing but are not fully developed. The film is quite enjoyable but not memorable.

A rarity among independent films, Passage To Ottawa is a family drama, suitable for kids and engaging enough to keep adults interested. Omi (Nabil Mehta) is a seven-year old East Indian boy sent to live with relatives in Ottawa when his mother falls ill. He believes he is on a quest to find a super-hero who will save his mother. Roland, (Jim Codrington) the captain of a local tour boat seems to fit the bill. The two form an emotional connection, as Roland begins a romance with Safia, (Amy Sobol) Omi's lively cousin. Nice naturalistic performances from a mixed cast of amateurs and professionals coupled with sure handed direction from India-born, Russian trained, Canadian resident Gaurav Seth add up to a sweet family movie, that champions the virtues of multi-culturalism. Recommended.

As you may notice, I'm writing this short review from Ottawa, Canada's Capital. Unlike New York, London or Toronto, it's not often that my home town has a starring role in a movie, so that was perhaps my main attraction to this film.

The story and quality of acting is at "The Game Has Been Rained Out, So Here's a Movie" level. Everything is competent, but not exceptional. The story-line moves along well enough, until near the end where I found it began to take some leaps in logic.

The story deals with a young boy trying to understand his mother's illness, and look for ways to save her, by finding a superhero to bring home to make her well again. The unlikely superhero is the unlikely captain of a tourist cruise boat, who falls in love with the young boys cousin. It deals with issues of race and culture and family.

Without my bias in favour of Ottawa, I'd give this movie a 5.5 out of 10 stars, but if you want to see some awesome scenery, Ottawa can't be beat.

A Passage to Ottawa is a superb family film in the league of Kolya, Children of Haven, and Central Station - sans the need for English subtitles - driven by emotions and story plot rather than sex and action.

The film is very touching, possibly due to outstanding performance of actors on its racial harmony family theme, or perhaps due to its excellent cinematography and direction, or may be due to its superb story plot centered around a 8 year old boy from India with great east-west music.

The story takes place in Canada. The fatherless boy Omi is in search of a comic-card hero to take home to India with him to care for his ailing mother. After a couple of misjudgments, he finds Roland, black captain of a local tour-boat. Omi changes his vision of hero from being white to someone who loves orange soda.

The teenage Safia born of Asian Indian father and white Canadian mother, who is taking care of Omi, pretends she has nothing Indian in her. She gets in romance with the much older Roland using Omi as an excuse to meet often with him.

The film beautifully presents the cultural mosaic of Canada in the integration perspective. Shot during and after the tulip festival in the spring, the film shows the Canadian capital in a storybook setting.

Although visiting from India, Omi surprisingly has no accent.

It was a pleasure watching this charming and heartwarming film. I went to see it without really knowing anything about it and found myself falling in love with the movie from the very beginning. It has such a simple yet emotionally satisfying premise - a young boy searching for a hero to save his dying mother. The young actor made all the difference. Besides his personal charisma and cuteness he also happens to be a real natural, effortlessly performing in from of a camera. This goes for the rest of the cast too. It's just amazing how such a small film with unknown cast and crew can create such a beautiful movie.

A gem of a film!