Starring: Roshan Seth, Ismail Bashey, Sheetal Seth, Roland Gomez, Deepti Naval, Suresh Oberoi, Crystal Morris, Purva Bedi, Jeff Loften Screenplay: Raj Basu Editing and Cinematography: Tom Agnello Costumes: Jason Koch Music Direction, Vocals and Original Score: Subashish Mukherjee Original Score Technical Composition: Dhiraj Bhattacharya Executive Producer: D.G. Parekh Directed by: Raj Basu

Synopsis

Wings of Hope is a story about love, hope and redemption. Set in the USA, the story brings out the tribulations and the conflicts of the first generation Indian Americans. Ravi is a lost school dropout who sets out to become a filmmaker, a move furiously opposed by his father. The conflict leads Ravi to alcohol and drugs. He is arrested and serves a six month prison term. On his return he is shunned by the Indian Community and also by Kaajal the girl he is in love with...

"I always wanted to become a filmmaker. I was forced into engineering in India by my parents. "

Says Raj Basu, Director of Wings of Hope. Basu worked first as an engineer then as a computer professional in the United States. Filmmaking initially took a back seat as he pursued an alternate career but then he took courses from the Hollywood Film Institute and made a couple of thrillers on video before embarking on Wings of Hope. Says he,

"I was always inspired by some great filmmakers of India like Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen and Shyam Benegal. I like to visualize stories and the only way to bring that in front of you is through full length films."

Talking about the film, Basu says he thinks the topics on the first generation Indian Americans is still an unexplored topic in USA even though some films are being made right now. They are the generation, children of those who moved to the States in the 1960s who are undergoing a cultural conflict. Even though there is freedom for this generation, there are also contradictions brought by another culture. In an immigrant life when one is trying very hard to stand on his/ her feet and make a better career in a different country sometime changes take place in his/ her life. Even though money brings prosperity - sometimes we go away from the basic values of life of helping some one, holding someone's hand, etc. We sometime forget the person who needs a second chance. A second chance is not always easy to get in life. But it can sometime change your life, Basu says. In terms of the issues raised in the film, Basu says I am exploring some subjects that are not openly discussed among Indians but are real problems with young people today: drugs and abortion. There have been a lot of films made about drugs, but not from the point of view of Indian children growing up in the USA. The same can be said of abortion.

It took Basu four months to write the screenplay. The lead character Ravi's feelings speak for many first generation Indian Americans. They are frightened of what rejection may bring. I'm mainly referring to acceptance by their own Indian community, says Basu. Had Ravi been born and raised in India he would have not had this problem. He always would have found one class of people to accept him. But in the USA, at least in the Indian community where everyone is busy 'trying to make a better life,' Ravi knows he has only one chance at success. When he was developing the script, Basu felt that this story could be even more meaningful if Kaajal, Ravi's girlfriend, had similar conflicts. In traditional Hindu culture abortion is a no-no. Life is sacred from its inception, so Hindus view abortion as the killing of a soul. Thus Basu developed a parallel story line based on abortion, a big issue for Indian parents in America.

Most serious and personal films have a strong autobiographical streak and Wings of Hope is no exception. To quote Basu,

"Like Ravi, I had a great love for film, but becoming a filmmaker was unthinkable. My father could never accept that filmmaking could be a career. I was a little like Ravi in that I was rebellious and in conflict with my dad. I had a dark side. I used to drink to escape and would hang around with friends from all classes of life. I tried to look through myself, to look through the eyes of a boy who grew up here in the USA. What would he face if confronted with drugs?"

After the screenplay was ready began the difficult process of raising the funds for the film. I went to several friends from Long Island to Washington DC asking them to give me whatever they could , says Basu and raised funding from 22 friends who liked the script of the story.

Basu wanted to get some big name Indian actors to play the main characters in Wings of Hope and was lucky to get Roshan Seth, Suresh Oberoi and Deepti Naval who play the parents of Ravi and Kaajal.. Seth plays Ravi's father. Basu got in touch with him through another Independent filmmaker Harish Saluja who had worked with Seth. Four months after Basu sent Seth the script, Seth said he was willing to do the film. It was a pleasure working with Seth reminisces Basu. He was absorbed in his part, always thinking, always asking questions, always analyzing. Suresh Oberoi plays Kaajal's father, the traditional Indian Patriarch and Deepti Naval Kaajal's mother who is the mediator between father and daughter. Ravi and Kaajal are played by Ismail Bashey and Sheetal Seth. Ismail was one of the first actors to read for the role and mentioned that he was facing the same kind of problems as Ravi was. He said this was the first time he had encountered a role that summed up the issues confronting today's young Indian Americans. Speaking of Kaajal's role, Basy says...

"With Kajaal, I wanted to bring in a character with whom young women might identify -- totally independent and socially free, yet not free from the dominating cultural values of the Indian parents. To an Indian parent whose children have grown up here, acceptance of their daughter dating or sleeping with white or black men, having a boy friend who drinks, and other things -- it is all very difficult."

Basu found a director of photography with his own 35mm camera when he followed up on Tom Agnello's advertisement in one of the independent film magazines. He felt comfortable with him form our very first telephone conversation and felt they understood each other immediately. Tom also became the film's editor. And above all Basu admits the film would not have been possible were it not for its Executive Producer D.G. Parekh. Both students and professionals formed the backbone of the production.

Speaking about the look of the film, Basu says

"I have always like the look of film noir and the idea of making contrasts of light and shadow convey the meaning of the film. It's the main character's movement from confusion to clarity, darkness into light. It's also about a similar movement by those closest to him. I tried to give that look to the film, starting with darker exposures and lightening gradually as the film progressed."

The film was shot in a tight schedule of 19 days mostly due to the limited budget. (The film has been made a t a cost of under $ 300,000) I would have liked to have been able to take more shots particularly more close ups but time didn't permit it. admits Basu. However it was a great experience with a combination of some experimentation and yet following the rules of filmmaking. And like most low budget films everything could and would go wrong yet the job would be done at the end of the day!

Basu reiterates that Wings of Hope is about love, hope and redemption. It crosses all international boundaries and is a story of heart and yet also the dark side of life. The film has been well received at the Calcutta and Mumbai Film Festivals last year and Basu hopes to find distribution for the film soon.