Amal
Amal was an audience favourite at this year's Whistler Film Festival as well as Best Feature Film at the Victoria Film Festival. It was produced in part by Astral Media the parent company of 650 CISL. Amal Kumar (Rupinder Nagra) is an unorthodox auto rickshaw driver in New Delhi. While his fellow drivers do nothing to dispel their reputation as crooks Amal is courteous and fair to a fault with all of his customers particularly Sapna (Seema Biswas) a fetching regular client who runs a shop and grows increasingly fond of her part time chauffeur. His kindness and sense of duty lead to unselfish help for a hospitalized street urchin and an impressive encounter with G.K. Jayaram (Naseeruddin Shah) a wealthy entrepreneur spending his dying days trying to find redemption as he roams the streets dressed as a derelict. Jayaram’s last wish is that Amal should inherit his fortune which touches off a city wide search for the mysterious rickshaw driver that is in turn being hampered by Jayaram’s sons who stand to lose almost everything if Amal is found within 30 days. Amal is not only a tender story flanked by a gorgeous soundtrack but also a rich depiction of the emerging middle class as India rapidly develops as a nation.