MUMBAI: Writer-director Shonali Bose’s award-winning Indian film Amu will have its US theatre release on 25 May 2007 at New York City’s Cinema Village and ImaginAsian.
The film will open in Los Angeles on 15 June 2007 at the Laemmle Music Hall and the Fallbrook.
Bose’s feature film debut presents a contemporary and politically volatile tale of a young Indian-American woman’s search for the truth about her past. Amu has screened at film festivals worldwide, earning numerous awards and honors, including two National Awards of India, for Best English Language Film and Best Director.
The protagonist Kaju Roy has returned to India to visit her relatives and spends much of her time touring Delhi with college student Kabir. As she visits the slums and crowded markets of the capital city, Kaju experiences haunting feelings of deja vu. Compelled by her startling visions, she investigates the circumstances of her birth parents’ death and her own adoption. Against the pleas of her adopted mother, Kaju – torn between being Indian and American, between her loving adopted family and the faded memories of her birth parents – embarks on an emotional journey for answers as to her identity. Though hindered by long-held secrets and witnesses who refuse to revisit the past, Kaju’s difficult search for the truth brings to light surprising revelations from those closest to her and draws her unexpectedly nearer to a tragic event in India ‘s history. Bose’s subtle pacing and deft storytelling skills bring the film to a startling conclusion.
Born and raised in India before receiving her MFA in directing from UCLA, filmmaker Shonali Bose has a personal connection to the controversial subject matter of her film. A 19-year-old student at the time of the Delhi riots, Bose worked in the relief camps where she heard the horror stories of the victims. She then worked as an activist after her move to the United States, where she met activist and scientist Bedabrata Pain.
Pain was also deeply involved in the movement for justice for the ’84 victims, and they had no doubt that the massacre would be the subject of Bose’s first feature film. After three years of debilitating rejections – investors were convinced that a film on ’84 should not be made – it was Bedabrata’s invention of the technology used to make the world’s smallest camera which provided seed money for Amu. Bose’s previous film credits include the narrative short films The Gendarme is Here and Undocumented, and a feature-length documentary Lifting the Veil.
