Amu [2005] Movie Reviews on CinemaClock

Amu has an informal, comfortable, home-movie feel, but in a good way. It creates the sense that you're actually with the characters, witnessing the events as they're occurring. It also lowers your guard, calmly taking its time to let the story unfold, so when the climactic scenes finally arrive, they pack all the more of a wallop. While always maintaining the personal perspectives of the individual characters, the film powerfully reveals the largely forgotten atrocity of the massacre of thousands of Sikhs in India in 1984. In its own quiet way, it makes a courageous political statement, unflinchingly laying blame for the genocide squarely on the shoulders of the government and police in power at the time. With subtlety and small details, the film conveys its outrage that those responsible have never been brought to justice. The importance of telling this story should not be underestimated. As history has shown, those who learn that the perpetrators of mass murder have gotten away with it in the past may try to repeat a similar crime in the future. Shonali Bose's feature film debut holds the promise of a bold and exciting new talent.