I recently saw this film at the Raindance film festival in London, UK.

It is a road-movie about a French girl who is touring India with her boyfriend who become seperated with her ending up on the back of a rickshaw where the driver is on the run from some gangsters. What follows is a beautiful journey throughout Rajasthan where we meet a different set of characters who all seem very real, unlike the caricatures of Bollywood. Of course you can guess that the relationship between the girl and the rickshawalla begins to grow as the story progresses, similarities between them are shown despite their cultural differences. The leading role of the rickshawalla is played by Vijay Raaz who played Dubay, the wedding planner in Monsoon wedding. I was very surprised to learn that this is the debut film of it's director Bharatbala (or Ganapathy Bharat) who also wrote and produced it. His next project is the IMAX film of Taj Mahal starring Aishwariya Rai. It looks like he has a promising future in the Industry.

I don't know when this film will be officially released as so far it's still doing the rounds at various film festivals around the world. It is without a doubt one of the best non-bollywood films to come out of India in a long time and the best film from India I have seen this year. If you liked Monsoon wedding then you're sure to like this. It has won it's fair share of awards at various film festivals around the world. I just wish India would produce more films like this.

I'm no good at writing reviews, so I'll direct you to the official website, but I recommend all you guys to go see this film when it is finally released. It is distributed by tips, though I hope it is picked up by a major label for it's DVD release, because tips will curse us with a rotten DVD!

http://www.hariomfilm.com/index.htm