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Director Pashrant Bhargava joins us to talk about his award winning first feature film, PATANG. A poetic journey into the old city of Ahmedabad, PATANG weaves together the stories of six people transformed by the energy of India’s largest kite festival. Every year a million kites fill the skies above Ahmedabad–dueling, soaring, tumbling and flying high. When a successful Delhi businessman takes his daughter on a surprise trip back to his childhood home for the festival, an entire family has to confront its own fractured past and fragile dreams. Music and fireworks, food and laughter, a kaleidoscope of color and light, the magic of the kite flying high – a traditional recipe of healing and renewal. With naturalistic performances from actors and non-actors alike, bold, lyrical editing, vibrant cinematography and a kinetic score, Patang delights the senses and nourishes the spirit.

“The storytelling is effortlessly made part of the hypnotically beautiful visuals, and woven into a kaledioscope of colors, faces, music and a little romance. Bhargava is masterful in the way he allows his story to emerge from his mosaic, instead of spelling it out by the numbers. Evokes the old and new Indias side by side as well as I’ve seen done.” – Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN TIMES