Private Project

The River of Love

After a violent attack, a man is left to die. As his lifeless body floats down the mighty Ganga, he is rescued by some good folks and nursed to consciousness. But he has lost his memory. Elsewhere upstream near the mountains, an estranged woman leaves her young daughter Swara in a monastery. Time passes by. The amnesic man gets an adopted name - Raahi. He moves around rudderless, looking for purpose and any clues to his past that he can find. Serendipity comes calling when Raahi meets Swara, the traumatised girl who has now transformed into a young spiritual woman. The rudderless Raahi decides to accompany Swara on her journey downstream to the Kumbh Mela for an event. Little do they know that their destines are intertwined and the journey will transform their lives.

  • Akash Khurana
    Director
  • Akash Khurana
    Writer
  • N.N. Sippy Productions Pvt. Ltd.
    Producer
  • Akash Khurana
    Key Cast
  • Sheetal Menon
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Magical Realism
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 10 minutes 31 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 31, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    450,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    Hindi
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.85:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Heartland International Film Festival
    Indianapolis
    United States
    North American Premiere
Director Biography - Akash Khurana

Dr. Akash Khurana is a Mechanical Engineer from NIT Rourkela with an MBA in Marketing from XLRI, and an M.Phil and Ph.D from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
He has also written over 20 screenplays, including Aashiqui and 'Baazigar', the latter fetching him the Filmfare Award. He has also conducted Workshops on Acting and Screenwriting.
His work in Television includes screenwriting for over 200 episodes with directors like Ramesh Sippy and Sridhar Kshirsagar, and acting in about 15 TV Serials covering nearly 50 episodes.
He is a music composer and lyricist, and as an avid musician, he has played the drums and the piano.

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Director Statement

Growing up as a film buff, the first film that I saw two back to back shows of, was Antonioni’s Blow Up. And An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce, still remains one of my most favourite short stories. In fact, it inspired me to start writing fiction at a very young age. It is not a coincidence, then, that both these works belong to a genre called Magical Realism.
The River of Love is a result of those deep rooted influences. Such stories are grounded in a realistic space and situation, but in which unusual events take place, sometimes without a rational explanation. But to the characters in the narrative, there’s nothing odd or magical about them.
Alejandro Inarritu, the director of Birdman, recently said that storytelling “needs much more contemplation, a little bit more patience, it needs to be a little bit more mysterious, more impenetrable, more poetic, more soulful.” This is an encouraging thought for me, as having worked as a screenwriter and actor in mainstream Indian cinema for many years, I had harboured a strong need to creatively explore more personal vistas. And I have been fortunate to have had so many wonderful like minded people in the making of this film. It has been a stimulating challenge for all of us.