Amu

“Amu” is one of the very good movies that I have watched lately. The story is of a girl adopted by a Bengali lady from New Delhi, after the outbreak of the Delhi riots in 1984. I was very small in 1984, but I still very vividly remember the Bengali 'Desh' magazine’s cover story on Mrs Indra Gandhi's assassination by her own elite bodyguards, who were from the Sikh community. I remember my Mom breaking out the news in the morning. I think she heard it on the AIR (All India Radio) news, you know...we didn’t have TV those days. I was just seven then, but I still get goose bumps when I think of that day. Following days were worse. We used to stay in Digboi, which is a tiny hamlet with India's oldest refinery in the center of town, but I could sense the frantic hysteria of fear among the bravest community I had ever seen. Any Sikh was looked down upon as a murderer. The situation in the rest of India was worse, especially Delhi and neighboring areas.

The movie is a very well made one, where the actors have done justice to their roles. I noticed the big Bengali production and direction team, which leads to a slight overdose of the Bengali culture as well. If you think about it, the Bengalis in Delhi were actually part of the huge refugee outflow from Bangladesh in 1971/72. The story revolves around Kaju (Konkona Sensharma) who comes to India on vacation but starts searching for her real roots. I liked the granny in the movie, who asked an interesting question to Kaju and her sister...you must watch the movie!!! All in all, quoting bwcinema.com : "Amu is a brave film, which devoid of any naach gaana, big stars or dishum-dishum, features one major ingredient that's missing in most commercial ventures: a decent storyline!" It is a story on the Sikh riots, and then at the end has a new clipping that mentions the Godhra riots where 52 people were killed in the train in Godhra, Gujarat. What an irony!