Rediscovering India

How do you make a documentary on India? # show a lot of colors # show a lot of street people # show spicy food # fill the background with a lot of local music # let there be dust and cattle filling the streets and your film # have a VO that guides you along the film # pick up one element like cuisine of clothes and cover it well # show poverty

and a few more such regular elements and you have a documentary film that wins accolades. I expected the same form this when I went for a screening. No. This is different. This is about a group of people going around the country in a car which is almost a derelict now, with no ideas preset about how to make this documentary. They just shot what they saw and heard.

Patched it up with the five people narrating the trip, and some amazing music, which thankfully sounded Indian as well as international. I laughed when I heard the first song. Indian film's are famous for their multitude of songs and this one has 11 of them. I liked some of them. Found some of the songs a waste.

A little too much of driving in the film. I would have liked them to stop and shoot the places more. But the visuals were very nicely shot.

Good film with a dose of entertainment throughout and a very simple yet novel presentation of India. A lot of aspects of India were uncovered but a lot of others which are ignored by other films were pleasantly there in the film.

2 hours later all i felt was - this was a fun way to look at India. Documentary?

Saw the movie recently in Bulgaria of all places.

This is a road trip movie with a difference, when the producer, Benny John, takes four young and completely inexperienced film enthusiasts around India making the film as they go.

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and would love to make the same trip myself. If only I had the time.

If you are thinking of going to India, as we are, it's well worth watching. The film makers cover the whole country and one gets an insiders view, a view that one would not necessarily get from a western production.

It's a documentary with a difference and Benny John and his young crew deserve praise for a job well done.

I have enjoyed watching Rediscovering India for its naked emotions and a honest story narrated as it is. If you don't watch documentaries, you should try watching this one for its stories with uncountable colours, emotions, myths, tradition, culture etc. It has some of the very beautiful shots and and wonderful songs. It is no less than a Bollywood movie just missing the star factor. The stories are simple and narrated with a sense of belonging. The characters are brought up in a beautiful light. Although more places could have been covered. Places less heard of should have been considered. Even after spending so many years in India, travelling through ten states from the north to south, I still could feel the difference in which it has portrayed India. Overall it was a good effort.

I saw this movie in a private screening in my college. I went along, not being really interested in watching a documentary film, being more of a fiction fan myself. On top of that i was told that this is almost 2 hours long. I did not want to sit through a couple of hours of watching things i have seen in countless documentary films. But I did. And am i glad that i did?

The film attempts many things as a first. I was told that this is the first time the whole of India has been covered in one feature length documentary. The film was made by a bunch of people who did not have any experience in film-making prior to this. They had only a passion to do it and the guidance of one of the directors who has a film-making background. The film is shot as one continuous drive around some 20000 kilometers covering all he states of India. The film, unlike most documentary films, has songs in it which aid the narrative.

I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. As a rarity I was entertained, not just by the stories that were featured in the film but by the adventures that the 5 people on the trip go through, whether it is physical, financial or emotional.

The film also refrains from passing any judgment on the stories or the people being shown. It just shows what the film-makers see.

Some stories were new, most were things I, as a person who has spent 23 years in this country has already seen. But it was definitely the first time I got to see it all threaded by one single trip.

Loved the editing, the rhythm moving from fast and peppy to slow and relaxed, based on what the stories demanded. The music was amazing, not just the songs, the background score, covering almost all the kinds of music that India has. For me the winner in the film was the camera work. Quirky at times, beautiful at times, weird, crazy, poised. The cinematographer captured everything as if the visuals defined how it would like to be shot.

Cant wait to see it in a movie theater. But then that rarely happens with documentaries in India. Maybe its good when things happen for the first time.

When I started watching the first thing that crossed my mind was yet another travelogue…but no it was truly a re-discovery from the point that for the first time I felt there was so much colors in India which we as Indians, sometimes take for granted but now I feel like flaunting it. It's a movie that every Indian should watch and should feel proud of. The music is excellent. Overall it was a feel good experience… Not only does it bring a fresh perspective to the whole notion of this being a country of varied and vivid cultures but also reinforces the fact the to experience it you have to travel through it..... So having seen this, through this filmmaker's eyes I plan to retrace their steps to understand and experience it my way... So here's bon voyage....