Cast: Konkana Sen Sharma (as Kaju and “Amu”), Brinda Karat (as Keya, mother of Kaju), Yashpal Sharma (as Govind), and Ankur Khanna (as Kabir)
Plot: An Indian-American visits India, and her extended family, only to discover a dark past!
Review: Amu starts with the usual sights of New Delhi through a window of a moving car, presenting glimpses of the hustle & bustle of the Capital City of India, New Delhi. The passengers of the car are Kaju along with her cousin, Tuki (played by Chaiti Ghosh), her mother and father! as they are going places in India, in the city and villages, while Kaju is busy capturing it all with her Handycam. Some of the sights are bringing back some unsettling memories that Kaju, has never had in her life.
As the story unfolds, the main character of the movie, Kaju is portrayed as a typical 21 year old Indian girl brought up in free-spirited environment of Los Angeles, USA. However, she knows that she was adopted by her single mother, Keya when she was very young. Though, she has tried all her life to obtain more information about her natural birth parents, all she could get out was that they died of an epidemic in a small village close to New Delhi, and she was adopted through an agency. That does not sit well with Kaju, and she roams around New Delhi, and makes friend with Kabeer, only son a of rich bureaucrat, who wants to be a writer.
As Kaju and Kabeer spend more time together, they begin to develop feelings for each others, which are shaken up by discovery of dark past associated with her and her surroundings when she was a child. Kaju learns from first hand experiences of people about the 1984 Riots that took place in several places in India, following the assassination of the then Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi by two of her personal bodyguards, who happen to be Sikhs.
Kaju begins to dig deeper into the tragedy of 1984 riots only to find the truth about her and her birth parents. She begins to suspect that a local goon, who was blamed for killing several “sikh’s” during the riot to be her natural father.
Keya, sensing that Kaju will not relent to her lies and will continue to dig deeper and deeper till she comes face to face with the truth and associated lies with her own existence, gives in and tell Kaju the truth! Which is shocking for Kaju, as well as eye-opening for a lot of people around her. She fails to understand how such a thing can happens and go unnoticed by the media, where thousands of innocent Sikh’s were killed during the riots, with no rehabilitation, or recourse to justice to this day, 21 years later!
The director, Shonali Bose has done a great job is stirring the long lost feelings of helplessness, and cowardice that people has exhibited, during the dark times of August 1984. Konkana has acted very well as expected from such a talented actor.
Rating: 4.5 of 5
PS: Watching this movie, my wife admitted that she wasn’t aware of such brutality against Sikh’s that happened during the 1984 riots. I can imagine, she was four then. But, I remember it well. The day it all started, with the news of Mrs. Gandhi been fired upon by three of her own personal bodyguards. Two of the assailants, were shot dead by other security personnel, while the third was captured. She was badly hurt and was taken to the hospital. We were in school, and were told of the news in an emergency assembly, only to be told to go home ASAP. I remember my sister, cried all through the way, till we got home. We tried to get more information through News on local TV and/or radio station.
The news came about her passing away later in the evening. Things went dark that day, there was an unsettling silence, as no one knew what to expect or what to do. News started pouring in about violence and rioting that erupted in New Delhi, Amritsar all different parts of the country that had significant Sikh population. Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, a politically novice and elder son of late Mrs. Gandhi was quickly elected the leader of Congress Party, to appease and calm the rioting mobs. It took days for the storm to calm, by the end of which thousands had died, with many more left with nothing, displaced from their own homes, separated from their kith and kin. In our neighborhood, we had three Sikh families, one of which was a very close friend of my fathers. We got very worried for their security. Most elders of the neighborhood decided to keep a vigil to keep the three families safe from any untoward incident.
Days went by very a shadow of fear for all of us, as the schools were closed, offices were closed, curfew was placed in several parts of the city. We all were very scared, more so because we had a full-term pregnant woman in our family, who needed to be taken to the Hospital any time, with so much confusion and fear all around. Yet, it happened, several elders of the family including my uncles, aunts, grandfather took my aunt to the hospital, where she delivered a baby boy later that night.
Somehow, with the birth of my first cousin, “Vicky” we began to lighten up, things happening in the rest of the world were insignificant. Though, we realized the impact of the riots, had left an indelible impact on my father’s friend, Surjeet Singh a Sikh, who lives stone-throw distance from us, he had cut his hair off along with two other sikh males in the colony. An act of desperation to keep themselves and their families safe in the most unusual circumstances. To cut their hair off, is a big deal for Sikhs. Yet they did it, to survive!
Change Is Imminent 