Amu is the story of Kaju, a twenty-one-year-old Indian American woman who returns to India to visit her family and discover the place where she was born. 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.
Acting
Konkona Sen Sharma's face does the work of ten monologues.
Writing
Bose's script trusts viewers to connect dots governments won't.
Direction
Tourist India slowly curdles into crime scene — masterful tonal shift.
Director
Shonali Bose
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film was effectively banned in Indian mainstream distribution; Bose organized community screenings through NGOs and universities for years. It remains one of the few cinematic treatments of 1984 from a survivor-descendant perspective.
Brinda Karat, who plays Keya, is a real-life Communist Party of India politician — her casting adds documentary weight to the activist mother figure.
IN
US
