The Road Home which is written and directed by Rajiv Gandotra is a short feature, approximately 20 minutes in length. As it’s main character, it has Pico Kapoor (Arrun Harker), a boy of about eight or nine of Indo-British descent. We never do see his parents, since he has been placed in the Woodstock boarding school in Mussoorie, India. As Pico tells us, his father has placed him here because it will help him in getting into the London School of Economics, and then Oxford ! Typical desi parent 🙂 !
Pico has a British accent and considers himself British not Indian, refusing to acknowledge his Indian roots. Faced with antagonistic school boys who deride him for refusing his Indian heritage, Pico runs away from school, and tries to reach New Delhi to fly back to England. In the course of his journey he meets a taxi driver, and a foreign tourist who try to persuade the boy to accept who he is. Does Pico return home (wherever that might be) ?
Now, the topic of this film was very interesting for desis, since we are all of Indian descent, some 1st gen, some second, with American born kids, whom we are striving to inculcate with our heritage (if you make the weekly trip to the local desi culture school, raise your fist and say “Yeah!”). Who we are and where we are from is a difficult question to answer especially in this world of melding physical boundaries. Nevertheless, it is amazingly important to me to have my kids appreciate the Indian way of life and the culture, warts and all (and there are warts, people !), so this is a film I watched with interest.
It is quite a beautiful film, with well-sketched characters. Acting-wise it was not all that, although most of the actors were passable and Harker was pretty good. Wielding the directorial reins, Gandotra does make his point, and does so effectively. The pace and story of the film suited the length, and the film was engaging. If you get the chance, this film is well worth the watch.
