(India, 2009, 117 min., Hindi and Marathi w/ES)
Director: Umesh Kularni
Website – http://www.vihir.com
This beautifully filmed drama, a Marathi film from emerging filmmaker Umesh Kulkarni, is the story of two adolescent boys in rural Maharashtra. Cousins and best friends, Sameer and Nachiket are standing on the crossroads of life with very different paths before them. This film delves into a wide variety of topics including family politics, the pain of growing up, existential crisis, Chinese whispers, detachment – and finding that “best friend” during one of the most difficult & exciting times of life, adolescence. The boys’ friendship continues even after Nachiket drowns in a well (“vihir” is Hindi for well) as they play a unique game of hide and seek, one cousin hiding in death and the other looking for him in the life around him. Samir’s search leads toward the experience of oneness, and a reconciliation of what he knows and what he thought he knew.
