There are very few films in the Braj language and on Braj culture,” Jitank Singh Gurjar tells us. For the theatre artist and filmmaker who grew up in central India and wrote plays and his first film Baasan in Braj, In Search of the Sky (Vimukt) meant a return to the language and cultural nuances of his region. Shot in the Barai and Patwa villages of Madhya Pradesh, the film had its world premiere at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival. It was the only Indian film selected for TIFF’s Centrepiece programme which showcases diverse global voices. “It always felt important to me to produce work in the language and with this story, I put myself in it by bringing in the dialect, music and nature of the land I grew up in.”

The film’s story, written by Pooja Vishal Sharma who is also its producer, was inspired by a newspaper headline about abandoned individuals at the Kumbh Mela and centres a journey to the Mahakumbh of a poverty-stricken couple and their son who has mental difficulties. Its first half, which captures snatches of the family’s life in the village, is infused with the beauty of its natural setting and uses earthy, warm tones, tight frames and static shots. “The story is about Naran, a man who is most connected to nature and who has found bliss in ignorance, who doesn’t know much and that’s enough for him to be happy,” the film’s cinematographer Shelly Sharma tells us. “His world is not just driven by struggles. There is the love that his mother pours into him, the warmth of the friendship that he shares with a local boy and the belongingness that he finds in the village even though he’s often treated badly there. His inner world is full of beauty, purity and innocence,” says Sharma, explaining that it is the sense of that beauty that spills out onto the early frames.