Cycle Mahesh

When the COVID-19 lockdown is announced in India, Mahesh, a 22-year-old plumber, finds himself stranded 2,000 kilometers from home. With all modes of transport shut, he packs his bag and sets off on his rickety bicycle. He crosses forests and mountains, sleeps in temples, and relies on people’s charity for food. Miraculously, seven days later, he reaches home. His story is picked up by a local newspaper, catapulting him to national fame. Politicians visit with promises of a better life, he is promised a job and a house. But nothing materializes and soon he finds himself back at a construction site, back to his plumbing job—completing a cycle of disappointment.

Now, his story has been picked up by a filmmaker. During the shoot in a village outside Mumbai, he befriends Mamta, a local resident. This faraway village begins to feel like home. Mamta’s life mirrors his own, a bond forms between them and these are the best days of his life. But as the film shoot ends, Mahesh grows desperate. Will he lose his newfound friends and sense of home all over again? Is his cinema-dream just another disappointment? One night, he takes off on his cycle. Can he escape one more time? This hybrid, experimental film-within-a-film marries fiction and nonfiction to explore the alienation of a migrant worker in India, drawing the portrait of an endearing young man trapped in a vicious cycle of disappointments. The innovative film is inspired by the works of Indian poets like Namdeo Dhasal and Varavara Rao, filmmakers like Abbas Kiarostami, and authors like Franz Kafka, as it investigates one of India’s most pressing and underreported social phenomena—migration.