MUMBAI: The South Asian International Film Festival, which is scheduled to take place in New York City on 4 October, will open with Manish Jha’s Anwar. The festival will be presented by Verizon.

Anwar will open at Loews Cineplex in Lincoln Square on 4 October, 2006. It is a story of one man’s awakening in a world he no longer recognizes. Trying to overcome betrayal, he is suddenly faced with an unusual set of circumstances that will lead him on a journey of self-discovery and enlightenment about the human condition.

Jha is one of the most critically acclaimed Indian director of his generation. By the age of 24, he had won two prestigious awards in the international film community. From the 2002 Cannes Film Festival where he won the Jury Prize for A Very Very Silent Film to the 2003 Venice Film Festival where he won the Fipresci Award from the Critic’s Jury for Matrubhoomi: A Nation Without Women, Jha is proud to present his most personal film to date.

Anwar is a love story, a political satire, a social commentary and an epic tragedy revolving around the ideal that in the end everyone is just looking for love.