I for India

This is an interesting documentary that the director Sandhya Suri had made bi witling down 40 years of her father's home movies to tell the story of how her Parents left India for Britain and the paths they and their children's' life take. How upon his arrival in a 1960 Britain that is not the most welcoming of places to foreign nationals he initially struggles with the fitting in to British society, and with the poor state of telecommunications at the time decides to maintain contact with his family in India by purchasing to cine cameras as a means of sending and receiving messages from one another. You notice how the family slowly gets used to life in the UK whilst constantly feeling the need to return home which is not helped by the large slices of guilt served by his family in their films to the family. This really is a remarkable story of the immigrant and how they can begin to feel like no place is actually their home, as the family here find out on their return to India. A lovely little film that shows the power of family in both the positive and negative ways.

I am involved with outreach for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and tonight had the fortune of privately previewing Sandhya Suri's "I for India" documentary on DVD, which will be shown here at the Festival in a few weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed her film, a story of her parents' leaving their home in India in 1965. Her father, Yash Pal Suri, had finished medical school and, part of India's "brain drain", he leaves for England with his wife Sheel and (I believe) daughter Neeraj to practice medicine in the town of Darlington.

One of the first things that Yash does to stay in touch with his family back in Meerut India is to purchase two Super 8 film cameras, two projectors, and two tape recorders. One set he sends to India and the other he uses to document their life in England; each side periodically mails their multimedia journal to the other as an extended postcard/letter.

This film presents a poignant and beautifully made film by his mid-1970s (and youngest?) born daughter, Sandhya. In it, she edits down to 70 minutes her father's 40 years of film and audio journals that chronicle the birth of two more children including Sandhya and Vanita, the pain of the separation from extended family back home, and of the immigrant experience, including excerpts from English news programs about the onslaught of "colored" immigrants.

The film had special significance to me, as my parents also immigrated from India. That said, I think that this film would appeal to anybody interested in bittersweet consequences of families moving ahead due to circumstance while being forced to leave behind some family and tradition.

The story itself is captivating, all the more so since it is made from actual historical footage. Where is home? How should the Suri family respond to urgent appeals to reunify and return to India? Is there opportunity for Yash back in India after some years of building a strong reputation for himself in England? Would the girls prefer to grow up surrounded by people who might look more like them? Does the independence and relative loneliness of English life suit Sheel better than the vibrant chaos of extended family life in India? How does Vanita's interest in settling in Australia impact the already once painfully transplanted family? Voice-over, sounds of old film and tape mechanisms running, and cuts between England and India journals all contribute to the narration. The pathos of the family's being aware of the aging of their parents and other relatives back home but their inability to be there to comfort and assist them is heartfelt in the journal archives. Perhaps the most emotive element is Sandhya's use of contemporary voice-over near the end with film footage from the family's original departure from India being shown.

Coming from a Mathematics and German background (uncannily, just as I have), Sandhya built on a shorter family documentary, "Safar", to create this film, her first feature-length one. "I for India" has already won her a number of awards. It is well worth seeing, beautifully made and sentimental but not at all maudlin, a documentary by nature realistically, but also poetically, presented. It's difficult to believe that this is a first feature-length effort; I anxiously await the unfolding of Sandhya Suri's hopefully long film career.

--Dilip Barman, Durham, NC

March 27, 2006

8 1/2 stars out of 10

I saw this documentary during the Sundance Festival in Salt Lake City. An Indian moves to England to work there as a doctor for a few years. Because the phone communication is insufficient and unsatisfactory, he buys two sets of audio and video equipment. He keeps on and sends the other to India. The film uses 40 years of video and audio tapes to tell the story of this family. I really like the film because it tells the story of a separated family using a unique view. The producer was in the very fortunate situation to have all this material and she did a marvelous job telling a simple story in a very beautiful way. Following this family over many decades with their struggles and joys is worth seeing.

I for India has this intimate eye over one couple and their 3 daughters growing up in the North East of England during the 70's.

It is a story telling , moving at times ,nothing is fictional , that is what is likeable about it, a documentary build over the course of one's (5) life What a delicious to discover mix and exchange of cultures.

Presented at the 2005 Sundance film festival , the film is prone for high acclaims Submerging yourself in it is like an eye over the past and the present in the United Kingdom

Edited with precision, the small flashbacks are almost reminders of our own personal life.

Great real film, wishing we could see E for England now the family has settled , who knows.