I for India (2005) User Reviews

Bittersweet immigrant documentary based on 40 years of journal film and audio footage, beautifully produced

[Dilip · 8/10 · 27 March 2006]

I am involved with outreach for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and tonight had the fortune of privately previewing Sandhya Suri's "I for India" documentary on DVD, which will be shown here at the Festival in a few weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed her film, a story of her parents' leaving their home in India in 1965. Her father, Yash Pal Suri, had finished medical school and, part of India's "brain drain", he leaves for England with his wife Sheel and (I believe) daughter Neeraj to practice medicine in the town of Darlington.

One of the first things that Yash does to stay in touch with his family back in Meerut India is to purchase two Super 8 film cameras, two projectors, and two tape recorders. One set he sends to India and the other he uses to document their life in England; each side periodically mails their multimedia journal to the other as an extended postcard/letter.

This film presents a poignant and beautifully made film by his mid-1970s (and youngest?) born daughter, Sandhya. In it, she edits down to 70 minutes her father's 40 years of film and audio journals that chronicle the birth of two more children including Sandhya and Vanita, the pain of the separation from extended family back home, and of the immigrant experience, including excerpts from English news programs about the onslaught of "colored" immigrants.

The film had special significance to me, as my parents also immigrated from India. That said, I think that this film would appeal to anybody interested in bittersweet consequences of families moving ahead due to circumstance while being forced to leave behind some family and tradition.

The story itself is captivating, all the more so since it is made from actual historical footage. Where is home? How should the Suri family respond to urgent appeals to reunify and return to India? Is there opportunity for Yash back in India after some years of building a strong reputation for himself in England? Would the girls prefer to grow up surrounded by people who might look more like them? Does the independence and relative loneliness of English life suit Sheel better than the vibrant chaos of extended family life in India? How does Vanita's interest in settling in Australia impact the already once painfully transplanted family? Voice-over, sounds of old film and tape mechanisms running, and cuts between England and India journals all contribute to the narration. The pathos of the family's being aware of the aging of their parents and other relatives back home but their inability to be there to comfort and assist them is heartfelt in the journal archives. Perhaps the most emotive element is Sandhya's use of contemporary voice-over near the end with film footage from the family's original departure from India being shown.

Coming from a Mathematics and German background (uncannily, just as I have), Sandhya built on a shorter family documentary, "Safar", to create this film, her first feature-length one. "I for India" has already won her a number of awards. It is well worth seeing, beautifully made and sentimental but not at all maudlin, a documentary by nature realistically, but also poetically, presented. It's difficult to believe that this is a first feature-length effort; I anxiously await the unfolding of Sandhya Suri's hopefully long film career.

--Dilip Barman, Durham, NC

March 27, 2006

8 1/2 stars out of 10

Likable,Poignant Documentary of Different Cultures

[BJJManchester · 8/10 · 12 March 2009]

A modest yet absolutely effective collage of grainy home movie footage and up to date high definition video,''I For India'' is a stunningly well put together documentary concerning Indian emigrant doctor Yash Pal Suri's filmed and recorded reminiscences of him and his family's departure from sunny Meerut to chilly Darlington in North East England in the 1960's for work purposes.

Though she does a first class job of the direction,Sandhya Suri could almost be described as an assistant to her father Yash,whose historically important Super 8mm imagery and dignified vocal taped messages dominate it's relatively short (70 minutes) running time.It could have come across as a rather dull and pointless presentation of someone's personal cine collection,but thanks to sensitive and intelligent handling,plus well-chosen and relevant contemporary footage that punctuates smoothly with it's older equivalent,''I For India'' takes on an impressionist and poetic style (the old, grainy quality of Super 8 film is always helpful for such purposes) with Dr.Suri's perceptive thoughts on leaving his native country and family,and his struggles to cope in an entirely different environment subtly and perfectly juxtaposed with imagery of a still close family in India,and examples of his various travels and abodes in Northern England.These fairly interesting adventures do not compensate for the feelings of isolation from his family;he isn't able to attend his brother's wedding for example,and being unbearably saddened when hearing about the death of his mother is probably the most poignant moment of all.Yet a return to India in the 80's was not a particular success,maybe because of the considerable length he was absent,and the racism present in non-PC Britain during this period is inevitably touched on,but thankfully in an adroit,unpreachy manner,with some ingeniously included footage from British TV programmes of the era,all of it insultingly naive and patronising,climaxed by the then PM-in-waiting (Margaret Thatcher) possibly making the most stridently ignorant comments of them all.

The reflective,methodical pace serves the film well,with it's well-judged sense of irony continued with Dr.Suri's daughter Vanita deciding to make the same decision as her father did four decades earlier by emigrating to Australia.The technology is of course quintessentially more sophisticated as far as communication is concerned,yet the more primitive style of film and reel-to-reel tape is still far more endearing and charming,which is part of the film's appeal.It is a scandal that the film is not better known or distributed,but for those so inclined,''I For India'' is far more affecting and cinematic than any vehicle starring over-indulged modern-day movie stars containing bloated CGI effects,deafening soundtracks and manically overblown car chases and explosions.With it's themes of family,identity,sense of place and work,''I For India'' sensitively chronicles a story that people from all walks of life will easily understand and empathise with.

RATING:8 1/2 out of 10.

Home is where the heart is

[ed_two_o_nine · 7/10 · 3 November 2008]

This is an interesting documentary that the director Sandhya Suri had made bi witling down 40 years of her father's home movies to tell the story of how her Parents left India for Britain and the paths they and their children's' life take. How upon his arrival in a 1960 Britain that is not the most welcoming of places to foreign nationals he initially struggles with the fitting in to British society, and with the poor state of telecommunications at the time decides to maintain contact with his family in India by purchasing to cine cameras as a means of sending and receiving messages from one another. You notice how the family slowly gets used to life in the UK whilst constantly feeling the need to return home which is not helped by the large slices of guilt served by his family in their films to the family. This really is a remarkable story of the immigrant and how they can begin to feel like no place is actually their home, as the family here find out on their return to India. A lovely little film that shows the power of family in both the positive and negative ways.

Family documentary over two continents over decades

[regine-haardoerfer · 9/10 · 9 February 2006]

I saw this documentary during the Sundance Festival in Salt Lake City. An Indian moves to England to work there as a doctor for a few years. Because the phone communication is insufficient and unsatisfactory, he buys two sets of audio and video equipment. He keeps on and sends the other to India. The film uses 40 years of video and audio tapes to tell the story of this family. I really like the film because it tells the story of a separated family using a unique view. The producer was in the very fortunate situation to have all this material and she did a marvelous job telling a simple story in a very beautiful way. Following this family over many decades with their struggles and joys is worth seeing.

Immigration

[dklei-26608 · 10/10 · 29 December 2023]

I for India has this intimate eye over one couple and their 3 daughters growing up in the North East of England during the 70's.

It is a story telling , moving at times ,nothing is fictional , that is what is likeable about it, a documentary build over the course of one's (5) life What a delicious to discover mix and exchange of cultures.

Presented at the 2005 Sundance film festival , the film is prone for high acclaims Submerging yourself in it is like an eye over the past and the present in the United Kingdom

Edited with precision, the small flashbacks are almost reminders of our own personal life.

Great real film, wishing we could see E for England now the family has settled , who knows.