Amu

I just went to screening locally as part of an Asian American Film festival. Amu was the opening movie for the festival. I liked the film a lot. Not your typical Indian movie by any means. After the movie they had Q&A with the director, producer, and lead actress. The discussion gave some neat insight regarding the movie. For example a lot of the filming / subject matter was done in fear of govt censorship. The version shown, as well as the one to be released later this fall in the US, is different than what those in India saw at the theater. For example in the scene with the widows discussing with Amu & Kabir the riots and how the government tolerated the violence, that the widows voices are left silent as Amu & Kabir sit in silence.

I was initially hesitant about watching Amu because movies with a backdrop of communal riots don't sit well with me. However, I had heard good things about the film and for that reason I also did not want to miss it.

Amu is a film about a young, adopted girl on a quest to find her birth parents. Kaju, played by Konkona Sen Sharma, lives in LA and is visiting India to be with her mother's family. During her visit she is also trying to get more information about her real parents, who she knows nothing about. The journey to find out her identity has her come across the characters played by Yashpal Sharma and Ankur Khanna, who help take her to each lead and finally to a point where she discovers her history. A history that is tied to the 1984 communal riots.

Amu is also about Kaju's relationship with her mother who is trying to keep the truth from her.

Shonali Bose does a fabulous job in telling the story and keeping the viewer glued to the screen. The cast was obviously selected very carefully. Konkona is completely believable as the young NRI. Brinda Karat as the mother puts in a wonderful performance, besides looking gorgeous! Ankur Khanna is perfect as the brooding, cynical Kabir, who gets exposed to a life he is completely unfamiliar with. Yashpal Sharma makes you laugh and makes you cry. The Bengali family as well as Kabir's parents are all people most Indians would have come across.

In conclusion all I have to say is that Amu rocks! It's a movie thats been made from the heart .... don't miss it.

Let me start by saying I lived in New Delhi during the time of the riots, and had close Sikh friends whom we had to care for at the time of the mayhem.

That said, I went to watch the film with no preconceived notions. I was pleasantly surprised. It had its share of low spots, but that is the beauty of watching a first time director's work, you see them grow. Shonali is going to be a writer director to be reckoned with.

Like all good 'Films' that are based on true events this film walks the fine line of not getting too caught up in the heat of actual events. Instead it tries to dramatize or fictionalize the effects of the events on people lives. A fact that some audience don't seem to grasp. Especially, a substantial number of Indian audience (amply demonstrated on this site by the stupid review by ajaysaxena1960)! I sat through a Q&A session with the director where people wanted to know why the director did not name names of all the MLA's involved in the massacre. Or if the director could through her film, get the International tribunal to try Indian government for crimes against humanity.

SHE IS A FILM MAKER. NOT A HISTORIAN OR A CRUSADER.

The film took 8 years to fund and make (a crusade in itself), for that alone I admire the director. But of all the films done by writers and directors based in America, Shonali's film most certainly stands head and shoulders above the rest. She has a strong voice and a crisp sense of film-making.

A director most certainly worth watching!

First of all it's a delight to watch such unselfconscious acting and to hear English (and Hindi, Bengali) spoken so naturally. First time director Shobnali Bose elicits wonderful performances from most of her cast - many of whom are 'non-actors'. The script, too, is deliciously funny in parts, which off-sets well with the powerful and serious message underlying the film. The locations chosen capture the actual places represented so that the whole has the verisimilitude of a documentary film, even while the spectator is drawn into the lives of the characters whose stories are being told. All in all a very satisfying film, and a great debut.

This clearly was a movie of passion for writer-director-producer Shonali Bose, a UCLA film school grad who wanted to tell a very important story about her homeland's history after she had some personal experience in the 1984 riots that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Bose wanted this film to appeal to audiences outside India - hence it is mostly in English - so she uses the plot device of a 21-year-old young Indian girl returning home from the U.S. for the first time. There, as she searches for her real parents, she finds out the ugly truth about her nation's recent history.

It's a brave, courageous attempt to reveal what happened in 1984, when several thousand Sikhs were massacred in what was a sanctioned move, if not a coordinated effort, by the government.

"Amu" takes a while to get going as we're introduced to the characters and the set up. It's fine, because the characters are engaging.

Konkona Sensharma is an absolute revelation. I realize that these days Aishwarya Rai gets much more coverage and publicity, but Sensharma is a much better actress, more convincing and gets thoroughly absorbed into her roles. As Kaju, Sensharma is utterly believable as a young woman who has spent most of her life in the United States. She has the mannerisms down, the accent's certainly not unbelievable and her emotions never ring false. I've now seen two films starring Sensharma - the other was "Mr. and Mrs. Iyer" (2002) directed by her mother, Aparna Sen - and she's been brilliant in both.

The film's shortcomings, however, are in the supporting players. Bose did a fine job in casting Sensharma. But as Kaju's love interest, she cast Ankur Khanna as Kabir. Khanna's problem is he never makes Kabir even remotely interesting. To say Kabir is wooden would be an understatement. The lines are delivered in monotone and there's barely any emotion in this performance. I couldn't believe that someone as vivacious and sprightly as Kaju would find Kabir attractive in the least. True, Kabir tries to be a sensitive young man trying to uncover the truth, but Khanna's so flat and dull that their budding romance is difficult to fathom. When Khanna works for some emotion, it seems very forced. There's little, if anything, natural about his performance.

Brinda Karat as Kaju's mother, Keya, is adequate - you can see her trying really hard to wring emotion out of her performance. The film's other fine performance comes from Yashpal Sharma as Gobind, a Hindu tea shop owner befriended by Kaju.

Bose uncovers her story well, adding a few surprises here and there. I realize why Bose used the device of having an Indian American going back to India. But I wondered if it was necessary. I would've preferred if the story had been about the riots; the mystery truly was superfluous. Then again, I also understand Bose's need to get this film distributed and seen in North America and the rest of the world - other than India, I mean - and adding a western touch to it was (unfortunately) probably unavoidable.

Bose certainly isn't lacking confidence in her story. There's one quiet moment between Kaju and Kabir where Bose allows the scene to unwind quietly, without any music. It's a fine moment, a poignant and strong one because of Bose's confidence. But just imagine how riveting and unforgettable that moment might have been with a better actor as Kabir. Having seen Rahul Bose and Sensharma have such tremendous chemistry in "Mr. and Mrs. Iyer," I can't help but think Rahul Bose would have been sensational as Kabir.

The flashback sequences are predictable only in that you know when they're about to be revealed. On the other hand, some of them are extremely painful to watch. Seeing a riot sequence replayed in never easy, but Bose brings out the humanity and the inhumanity out awfully well. And as anyone who's lived through riots would attest, they seem very real.

"Amu" is an important film that needed to be told. It gets a bit didactic occasionally. More subtlety would've helped. Some of the dialogue clearly needed to be tightened only because Bose serves up lines to only be transitions to more expositionary speeches. It's forgivable considering this is Bose's first narrative feature. But the lines seem too obvious and with a little bit of tweaking, this could have been a provocative masterpiece. Bose's a good director, but she needed someone to come in and strengthen the dialogue in this film.

If you're looking for some different fare, something other than Bollywood out of India, do yourself a favor and give "Amu" a chance. Bose shows a lot of promise and that's good not only for Asian cinema, but for film-making as a whole.