critics consensus

Amu uses one woman's experiences to train a lens on a painful period in Indian history with heartbreaking clarity. Read critic reviews

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Amu Photos

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Movie Info

A 21-year-old Indian-American woman learns of secrets and lies that tie her origins to a horrifying genocide.

Genre:

drama
Original Language:

Bangla
Director:

Shonali Bose
Producer:

Shonali Bose
Writer:

Shonali Bose
Release Date (Streaming):

Oct 7, 2016
Runtime:

1h 42m

Cast & Crew

Konkona Sen Sharma
Kaju Amu

Yashpal Sharma
Gobind

Brinda Karat
Keya

Ankur Khanna
Kabir

Chaiti Ghosh
Tuki

Aparna Roy
Grandmother

Show all Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews for Amu

All Critics (23) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (19) | Rotten (4)

Quote not available.

November 17, 2011 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Joshua Land
Time Out
Shot with remarkable confidence and an understated eloquence.

June 21, 2007 | Rating: 3/4

John Anderson
Newsday
Less about finger-pointing than a plea for India to confront its past.

June 15, 2007

Kirk Honeycutt
Hollywood Reporter
An admirable labor of love that stumbles dramatically but gets along on its sincere good intentions.

June 14, 2007 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Carina Chocano
Los Angeles Times
[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…

Andrew Sarris
Observer
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…

Joshua Katzman
Chicago Reader
The film is a worthy effort. The scenes of 'ethnic cleansing' in 1984 are horrific, especially an efficient, cold-blooded attack on a train.

February 15, 2021 | Full Review…

David Walsh
World Socialist Web Site
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…

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

June 15, 2007 | Rating: 3/4

Bob Strauss
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…

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

May 25, 2007 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide
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

Prairie Miller
WBAI Web Radio

View All Critic Reviews (23)

Audience Reviews for Amu

Feb 29, 2008

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 long forgotten about. Konkona Sen Sharma, Ankur Khanna, Brinda Karat, Choiti Ghosh, and Yashpal Sharma stars. Worth seeing!!

Leo L Super Reviewer