APM - Asian Project Market

 

Back to list Sunrise

Director’s Profile

Partho SEN-GUPTA was born in Mumbai, India in 1965. He started his career as a young apprentice in the art department in the studios of Bollywood’. Later he setup his own design studio and worked on numerous advertising films and feature films, designing sets as production designer.
In 1993, he was awarded a scholarship to study film direction at the Fémis in Paris. Between 1993 and 1997, he made several short films that took him to different European film festivals at which he won several awards. His first feature film, Hava Aney Dey - Let the wind Blow(2004) premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. It was also selected by many other major international film festivals and won the Best Film Award at the Durban International Film Festival, BBC Audience Award for Best Film at the Commonwealth Film Festival and Special Jury Mention Firebird Award at the Hong Kong Film Festival. SEN-GUPTA also directed a documentary, ‘Shakti Timeless’(2006), on the Indo-Western fusion music group, tracing its history from the 1970s to the present. He has two other film projects, Fallen Hero (developed with the Hubert BalsFund) and The Myth of Myra(with the Dutch Film Fund, Binger lab & Augustus films) in development.

Synopsis

A child is kidnapped from a shelter for street children in Mumbai. Inspector Joshi and his team are sent to investigate. As they search for clues, Joshi meets a six year old boy named Manu. Joshi is strangely drawn to this boy. He starts visiting him; he tries to befriend him. Leena, the shelter manager accuses Joshi of indecency and complains to his bosses who decide to suspend him. One day Manu goes missing too. Joshi tries to convince the bosses to let him back on the job, but they do not relent. Defeated, Joshi goes back to his flat; he sits by the bed of his ailing wife. He holds her tight in his arms and comforts her. He looks at a framed photo on the wall of himself, his wife and Arunoday, a small child, in happier days. A six year old boy is brought by traffickers to a brothel. He is entrusted to Komal, a teenage prostitute. Slowly as the days go by, Komal and the young boy become close friends, living a childlike existence amidst the horror that surrounds them. The boy watches as the other children are sent out to ‘Clients’. One day, the pimps come to take the boy away. Komal tries very hard to stop them but they beat her. Out on a limb, Joshi has been following a man for weeks. He follows him to a seaside tourist hotel. He sees a car stopping and the man getting out with a child. Joshi follows them inside. There is a terrible gunfight and Joshi is injured. But he manages to save the child and drive away. He drives all night but is bleeding heavily and has to stop. He hugs the boy and tells him not to worry, that he will save him this time and that nobody will take him away. But the bleeding is too strong. He blacks out holding the boy in his arms. The bright light from the rising sun wakes Joshi from his slumber. He looks around and does not see the boy anymore. He hears laughter. He looks out of the car and sees his wife and son, Arunoday, playing on the beach. He gets out and rushes to join them. They laugh and play together.

Achievements

2014 Busan International Film Festival
2014 Mumbai Film Festival
2015 International Film Festival Vilnius
2015 Beaune Film Festival
2015 Tribeca Film Festival
2015 Sydney Film Festival
2015 Munich International Film Festival
2015 Melbourne International Film Festival
2015 Fantasia International Film Festival

Back to list