Please go watch "Amu"...

I attended the premiere screening of Amu at Cinema Village last evening. Starring the extremely talented Konkona Sen, the movie portrays the story of a young woman's quest to find her roots which leads to the uncovering of the tragic 1984 carnage that took place in India after the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards. It is a very touching story, that captures the times and the sentiments associated with the riots brilliantly. The movie touched a special chord with me. Our family was in Delhi at the time. I was a kid, but still recall how we had turned the lights off, were told to be quiet, and how our neighbors had put a lock on our door so it appeared that no one was home. I was too young at the time to recall much else, just remember a snippet of feeling scared.

The director of the movie Shonali Bose - a non Sikh, was there to answer questions after the screening. Hats off to her courage and perseverance to write, direct and produce a movie on such a controversial subject. She attended the Columbia film school and this is her first movie. As a first year student in college in India, she had worked in the relief camps post the riots and was so moved by the victims that decided to make the 1984 riots the subject of her first movie. Ten thousand people were killed in a span of 3 days. Even after 23 years, 11 inquiry commissions, no one has been convicted for the killings that took place; there are no books or other movies on the subject. It was an organized and targeted state sponsored massacre. I was truly moved by the passion of this young director who took it upon herself to take the voice to these victims to the world. One of her funders backed out just as she was about to start making the movie. She was short half a million dollars. But she didn't give up - put in her own savings and started production without having the entire budget. She mentioned how she couldn't find a distributor and needed money to release the film in NY. She did a radio show in Toronto, which has a huge Punjabi community, and the local working class people, called in making contributions of $50 to $100 each and that's how she raised $100,000 that she needed to bring the movie to NY.

The movie will be released in Chicago and LA based on the turnout and box office collections of the opening weekend in NY. So please go see this movie...to support a brave first time woman director, to experience a work of cinematic excellence, to pay a tribute to the families of those thousands of victims who are still waiting for their voices to be heard.