A scene from the film Siddharth.
Writer and Director Richie Mehta’s Siddharth will be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in this year. An advanced press screening was held at the Bell Light Box in end of August. Siddharth is Mehta’s second feature film and it has been selected for the Venice Day Program from August 28th to September 7th.
Director Richie Mehta.
Based on a true story, which was told by a desperate father how he searched for his missing son. Mehta says when he visited India in 2010 he met this man on the streets of Delhi. When he saw the innocent, poor, helpless, illiterate and sorrowful father desperately looking for his son, Mehta wanted to meet him again and ask more details of his tragedy. Mahendra is a father of two kids, working hard to earn a living by fixing zippers.
When his son turned 12 he sends him to work in a factory to another province. He trusted his brother-in-law, Ranjith to arrange everything for his son’s departure. Once he made a telephone call and said he will be starting work and hope to be back for Diwali (Festival of Lights).
Waiting for son Siddharth’s parents and sister, Pinky eagerly waited for his arrival. He never arrived. Then Mahendra rushed to Ranjith’s place to inform about his son, he was told that his son went missing from the work place two weeks before Diwali. Mehta has marvelously created a real life story into the silver screen with lots of emotions.
Siddharth will have two public screenings at TIFF on September 10 and 12.
Richie Mehta, writer and director is a Canadian-based filmmaker who was born in Mississauga and studied in University of Toronto (Mississauga Campus). He gained international recognition for his first feature film Amal in 2007 which had its world premiere at TIFF.
