“Festival of Lights” is the first feature film written and directed by documentary filmmaker Shundell Prasad. It is the story of a Guyanese-born Indian family and opens with the mother Meena (Ritu Singh Pande), father Vishnu (Jimi Mistry), and their 3-year-old daughter Reshma (Roshini Persud) at a joyful celebration of the Hindu holiday, Diwali. The time is 1980 and writer/director Prasad gets high points for writing a story about a time and place that so many know nothing about. Guyana, to most Americans, only conjures up images of Jim Jones and the 1978 mass suicide of members of the Peoples Temple in Jonestown.
Prasad herself is an Indian from Guyana. The movie accurately reflects the political and social issues of the times, but it is a fictional story about one broken family. The story shows Indo-Guyanese treated as second class citizens by the Afro-Guyanese and the South American country is in chaos. Homes are broken into, women and children raped, citizens murdered. Vishnu and Meena know this is no place for their daughter Reshma to grow up and they take the steps to immigrate to America.
Things go horribly wrong when Vishnu is denied a visa. It’s mesmerizing to watch Pande’s face as she plays Meena thrown into loneliness and stress having to raise her daughter on her own. She waits for Vishnu to come to the U.S. and does what she needs to. Meena lands a job as a maid. This isn’t the life she’d dreamed of and her future looks bleak. Enter Adem (Aidan Quinn), Meena’s kind, handsome, self-made boss who assures her that everything will be okay.
A jarring jump-cut takes us to 12 years later. Meena’s daughter Reshma (Melinda Shankar) has become a rebellious teen with no respect for her mother. Reshma has zero understanding or appreciation for the sacrifices her parents made and as millions of rebel teens, Reshma gets herself into a world of trouble. Her rage and frustration ratchets up and is aimed right at her Mom.
Actress Pande, as the sympathetic yet flawed Meena, gives a strong and compelling performance. Her eyes and lips are as intriguing as Mona Lisa’s and keep you focused on her face where she conveys deep emotional conflicts. This is the feature film debut for this Indian-born New York-based actress/producer. Pande got her start in Mumbai on soaps and in documentary roles and was a finalist in the Miss India pageant.
You’ll want to smack Shankar—as Reshma. Reshma is stubborn, willful and infuriating like only a self-absorbed, brooding, insolent teenager can be. If you were once a rebel teen, you’ll wince painfully as you recognize your former self. Shankar deserves credit for being able to evoke these feelings and remind you that it is a wonder some kids ever make it to adulthood alive and intact.
Director Prasad made some missteps here and there—awkward jumps, not enough focus on Vishnu’s political history, some inconsistent pacing—but, as a whole, the movie works well. It is a compelling story, strong cast, and a unique birds-eye into a culture and country rarely seen in cinema. And all of this in a budget-challenged Indie flick.
There is enough here for those fascinated by relationships, family drama, and the plight of strangers in a strange land. It will also hold the interest for those curious and concerned about immigration issues, and political and socio-economic conflicts. Definitely worth the ticket price, so go!
“Festival of Lights” opens in New York City tomorrow, November 9, 2012, at the AMC Loews Village 7, 66 3rd Avenue. 120 minutes. NR.