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Amu (2005)

tomatometer

82

Average Rating: 6.4/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 2

No consensus yet.

audience

73

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 1,272

My Rating

Movie Info

Seeking to uncover the mysteries of her past, a 21-year-old, Delhi-born American woman travels to India to seek out her long-lost relatives in this politically charged drama from filmmaker Shonali Bose. Kaju (Konkona Sensharma) was only three years old when she was swept away to America by her adoptive mother -- but Kaju was never given a definitive reason for her hasty departure or an answer to the question of what fate befell her original birth parents. As the visibly Americanized Kaju seeks

Unrated, 1 hr. 42 min.

Drama

Dec 2, 2008

Emerging Pictures

Cast

All Critics (27) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (18) | Rotten (5)

Shot with remarkable confidence and an understated eloquence.

June 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Newsday | Comment
Newsday
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Less about finger-pointing than a plea for India to confront its past.

June 15, 2007 Comment
Hollywood Reporter
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An admirable labor of love that stumbles dramatically but gets along on its sincere good intentions.

June 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
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[Amu] is clearly a labor of love for the activist filmmaker, as she breaks all the traditional inhibitions of Bollywood to remind the world of -- and, for most of us, reveal for the first time -- one of the most shameful episodes in Indian history.

May 30, 2007 Full Review Source: New York Observer | Comment
New York Observer
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In Shonali Bose's tightly constructed debut feature (2005) a young Indian-American woman from Los Angeles returns to Delhi for the first time since childhood to visit her relatives.

May 25, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
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Fails to grab the imagination as it unfolds in familiar TV-movie fashion.

May 25, 2007 Full Review Source: New York Post | Comment
New York Post
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The 1984 Delhi riots [are worked into] into the story of an American-raised college graduate who returns to her South Asian roots and is shocked by what she finds.

March 1, 2009 Full Review Source: Miss FlickChick | Comment
Miss FlickChick

A work of evident passion and outrage, Amu is also remarkable for its humanism and persuasive, natural presentation.

June 15, 2007 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | Comment
Los Angeles Daily News

The flashback sequences are vibrant and intense, and the film's long closing shot is so dense with feeling for a nation and its people that Bose deserves to be noted as a filmmaker to watch.

June 14, 2007 Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | Comment
L.A. Weekly

The movie has its share of wobbly moments, and the resolution feels a bit like a cop-out.

May 26, 2007 Full Review Source: Time Out New York | Comment
Time Out New York

[Though] undermined by uneven performances, preachy digressions and a handful of clunky scenes, it's nonetheless compelling on a personal level.

May 25, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

The flat, pat talk is symptomatic of Amu's overriding problem: It has no sense of personal style.

May 25, 2007 Full Review Source: AV Club | Comment
AV Club

1984 may have a certain negative meaning to Westerners ever since Orwell immortalized that futuristic dystopia. But for India's Sikhs, 1984 has a far more dreaded historical significance, and one oddly buried here deep within their collective memory.

May 24, 2007 Full Review | Comment
WBAI Web Radio
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Amu

An intriguing movie that follows a young woman's journey into discovering the mystery about her past. With a new friend in tow, Kabir helps Kaju try to discover the truth about the range of secrets that her mother isn't telling her. Her search leads to a shocking realization about her true identity and those she has

February 29, 2008
ileo
Leo L

Super Reviewer

This movie is full of everything....a sad, but true story. ....this keeps on happening in other countries to this day!!

July 31, 2009
childofevil2003
Gustavo Ruiz-Bonilla

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