Amal (film)

Infobox Film
name = Amal


caption =
director = Richie Mehta
producer = Steven Bray
writer = Richie Mehta
Shaun Mehta
starring = Rupinder Nagra
Naseeruddin Shah
Seema Biswas
Koel Purie
Vik Sahay
Roshan Seth
music = Dr. Shiva
cinematography = Mitchell Ness
editing = Stuart A. McIntyre
distributor = Seville Pictures (Canada)
released =

August 8, 2008 (Toronto)

"See release dates section"
runtime = 101 min.
language = English, Hindi
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
imdb_id = 0907674

Amal (Hindi: अमल), 2007, is a Canadian drama film directed and written by Richie Mehta. Set in modern-day New Delhi, India, it tells the story of a poor autorickshaw driver, Amal Kumar.

ynopsis

Amal Kumar (Rupinder Nagra) is a hardworking sweet-natured autorickshaw driver. Driven by senses of honesty and responsibility, he charges the metre rate and is never late to pick up his regular fares: store merchant Pooja (Koel Purie) and a schoolboy, son of exacting lawyer Sapna Agarwal (Seema Biswas).

While riding in Amal's autorickshaw on one occasion, Pooja has her handbag snatched out of her hands by a beggar girl (Tanisha Chatterjee). Amal immediately starts pursuing the girl despite Pooja telling him to let it go. The chase is over when the beggar girl is hit by a car and falls unconscious on the ground. Horrified with what they have witnessed, Amal and Pooja take the girl to hospital. From then on, Amal regularly pays visits to the girl, speaks to her doctor and makes sure to remind the nurses to take good care of her.

One day Amal offers his services to an old man who has just been denied a ride by a different autorickshaw for the sake of another fare, a female tourist. The old man who does not reveal his identity throughout the drive is in fact local billionaire G.K. Jayaram (Naseeruddin Shah) who has been wandering the streets of New Delhi searching for an honest man. After asking Amal some questions about his life, making insulting comments about his driving skills, and going back on his words with regard to his destination, G.K. pays his fare (surprised by Amal not wanting the three-rupee tip) and leaves.

After a short while, G.K. Jayaram dies and leaves his entire estate to the one honest and descent man he believes to have encountered – Amal. His will is not to be read out until Amal reports to the Jayarams' lawyer Sapna who has no idea that Amal is her son's longtime autorickshaw driver. If Amal is not found within a month, G.K.'s estate will be inherited by his family members. Sapna deploys Suresh (Roshan Seth), G.K.'s old companion (who has his own eye on G.K.'s fortune), to find out Amal's whereabouts. Convinced that it is unfair for the estate to be inherited by a stranger autorickshaw driver, while the Jayarams get nothing, Suresh and G.K.'s son Vivek (Vik Sahay) secretly develop a plan by which Amal is not to be searched, so that after a month the Jayarams inherit what belonged to their father with Suresh also being allocated his share. It is crucial for Vivek to get his hands on that fortune, as he is sinking in poker debts.

In the meantime, the condition of Priya, the beggar girl who was ran over by a car, improves; she befriends Amal and enjoys talking to him during his visits. However soon it is revealed that she is in need of a difficult surgery that would cost 50,000 rupees. It is then that Amal decides to sell his autorickshaw which was passed on to him by his father in order to pay for the girl's surgery. The operation is not successful; Priya dies on the operating table, which terribly saddens Amal. He then takes up the longtime offered janitor position at a local post office. Touched by Amal's kindness and self-sacrifice, Pooja digs into the money she has been saving for her dowry and buys a carburettor that she knew was needed to fix an abandoned autorickshaw lying by his house (which Amal's neighbour has been trying to fix desperately but to no effect). She then brings it to Amal, so he could install it and return to his usual business again.

Meanwhile Suresh starts questioning his actions after sneaking in Sapna's office at night (by bribing her maid) and reading G.K.'s letter addressed to Amal. He later does find Amal and witnesses his true honesty and sweet nature first-hand. He is reluctant to notify Sapna he has found G.K.'s heir but eventually does so the night before the deadline. On the same night he has a talk with Vivek and informs him that he is abandoning their original plan and is taking Amal to Sapna's the next day. Unable to convince him otherwise, Vivek attacks Suresh and chokes him to death.

The morning after, Sapna cannot get a hold of Suresh. To her great surprise, she finds out from her husband that Amal Kumar used to pick up their son from school all this time. Determined to find him, she goes out on the streets of New Delhi asking autorickshaw drivers throughout the city whether they know a man by the name of Amal Kumar. She finds him hours later sleeping in his vehicle and asks him to come over just before the 5:00 p.m. deadline expires. Amal comes along despite rushing to pick up a fare. In her office, Sapna hands Amal (who is still unaware of the inheritance) G.K.'s letter in which he wrote that as the honest man he had been looking for all these years, Amal deserves to inherit the Jayaram estate. Amal opens the letter and takes a long look at it, but before Sapna provides any additional information, she receives a phone call in which she is informed that Suresh has passed away. Shocked and drawn into the conversation, she does not notice Amal leave with the letter in his hands. On his way out, he is approached by a homeless girl who asks him for a piece of paper to draw on. Amal hands her the letter and gets into his autorickshaw. Sapna rushes outside only to find out that Amal has already driven away. Meanwhile the homeless girl approaches Sapna's son who has just arrived home from school and tells him that the paper Amal has given her to draw on has got writing on it and may be of some importance. To that Sapna's son replies that it would make no difference, as Amal cannot read.

Credits

Cast

*Rupinder Nagra as Amal Kumar
*Naseeruddin Shah as G.K. Jayaram
*Seema Biswas as Sapna Agarwal
*Koel Purie as Pooja Seth
*Vik Sahay as Vivek Jayaram
*Roshan Seth as Suresh
*Tanisha Chatterjee at Priya
*Siddhant Behl as Harish Jayaram
*Amardeep Jha as Radha Kumar
*Maya Mankotia as Simran Jayaram
*Dr. Shiva as Dr. Shiva
*Gurpreet Chana as the Tabla Guy
*Fenulla Jiwani as Poker Woman #2
*Ellora Patnaik as Casino Director

Crew

*Director: Richie Mehta
*Screenplay: Shaun Mehta
*Story: Shaun Mehta
*Producer: Steven Bray
*Music: Dr. Shiva
*Cinematography: Mitchell Ness
*Editing: Stuart A. McIntyre
*Casting: Mukesh Chhabra and Harish Khanna
*Production Design: Mark Gabriel
*Art Direction: Anthony Morassutti
*Set Decoration: Avani Batra
*Costume Design: Kelsey Hart
*Assistant Director: Ryan Hyland
*Production Manager: Jessie Wallace
*Executive Producer: Robin Cass

Awards

*2007, San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival for Best Narrative Award
*2008, Whistler Film Festival for Best Actor, "Rupinder Nagra"

Release dates

External links

* [http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tiff/story/2007/09/10/tiff-amal-mehta.html New filmmaker Mehta to screen debut Amal at TIFF] . "CBC News". September 10, 2007. Retrieved September 16 2008
* [http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2008/08/08/f-amal-review.html Film Review: The last good man] by Alison Gillmor. "CBC News". August 8, 2008. Retrieved September 16 2008