Amu

Her trip back home turned into the journey of a lifetime... Amu is the story of Kaju, a twenty-one-year-old Indian American woman who returns to India to visit her family. The film takes a dark turn as Kaju stumbles against secrets and lies from her past. A horrifying genocide that took place twenty years ago turns out to hold the key to her mysterious origins.

How were Kaju's family involved in the killings? What happened and why? Who were the culprits? Who benefited? Will Kaju have the courage to pursue the truth no matter the cost? Will it destroy her relationship with her mother? Will it affect her burgeoning romance? Will it change everything she knows about herself and about India?

Amu. When the past lives in the present...

I watched the DVD recently, and i thought it was a very sincere attempt to highlight the events of the genocide. The movie perhaps did not go into as much details as one would have liked, but still gives the viewer a taster of what happened in 1984. One of the issues highlighted was the fact that nobody likes to talk about 1984, wether they are Sikh or not. They all seem to want to forget the events and move on. If one can learn from the mistakes, then fair enough moving on may be some peoples choice, however if history repeats itself (i.e. Gujrat) then surely something is seriously wrong.

Overall, Konkona Sen gives a good performance, as one would expect from a talented actress. Some of the rest of the cast are perhaps not upto scratch. I think what really stands out is the fact that this movie was made by a non Sikh, which may give it more credibilty (for not being biased as some people may say). Perhaps what lets it down slightly was that it did not go into too much details about the riots. But i suppose one could argue that the story was about Amu trying to find out about her past, rather than delving on the riots. Nevertheless, its definatley worth watching, you can order the dvd from here