DANCE OF THE WIND

Voted audience favourite at both the London and Nantes Film Festivals, Rajan Khosa's magnificent debut, Dance of the Wind, probes the dynamics of the Indian oral tradition. Pallavi, a successful singer of classical Hindi music, observes with immense concern and distress as her aging mother and mentor, Karuna Devi, approaches the end of her life. A legendary performer in her time, with voice skills far superior to her daughter, Karuna Devi's imminent death is presaged by the appearance of an impoverished old man and a small girl, Tara.

Grief at the death of her mother and the ensuing emotional turmoil results in Pallavi losing her voice. Subsequently her career stalls, she loses her own students, alienates her stoic husband and falls into confusion. Searching for Tara, who announced her mother's death, Pallavi encounters her mother's guru, Munir Baba, and commences a quest to regain her talents and set her life in order once more.

"For my first feature film I was bent upon pushing the boundaries of cinema; while using sparse dialogue I tried to touch silence and the beauty of pure music. It was in my search for a cinematographic narrative, instead of a literary one, that I stuck to this approach. Also I decided to use a large number of non-professional actors to retain the authenticity of Indian culture and milieu. Like the singer, for me too it was an attempt at searching for my own voice. " - Rajan Khosa

Born in India, 1961, Rajan Khosa studied Visual Communications from 1978-1982 before attending the National Film Institute in New Delhi. During this time he was responsible for several award-winning shorts and documentaries, among them Cycloid (1982), Conflict (1983), Bodhvriksha (1985) and The Moth and the Flame (1992). Dance of the Wind is Khosa's first feature.