Safar (2014)

Safar is a film about a sixteen year old girl, Gouri, who comes from a small village in the South of India. Sold by her parents to God as a part of the Devadasi tradition and forced into prostitution at a young age, the film begins when Gouri decides to change the course of her life. She leaves the seedy interiors of her friend Lakshmi's home to begin work as a maid with Dhan, an old lady who has just lost her husband. But just as she seems to find her feet, her past rears its ugly head again. While Safar is the personal story of a young Hindu girl Gouri, it is set against the backdrop of the city of Mumbai. A city that is thronged by thousands of people everyday, people from different parts of the country, people with very different class, caste, social and religious backgrounds. Through Gouri's interactions with Dhan, an old Parsi lady, and Salim, a middle-aged Muslim taxi driver, individual and shared experiences of loneliness, longing and the indomitable human spirit come alive in this gargantuan city.