Filmmaker Pooja Kaul uses cinema as poetic language in her soulful coming-of-age feature debut, The Umesh Chronicles. The film explores how a young Indian woman is shaped and formed by the encounters she experiences. Languid and patient in its storytelling structure, this romantic drama was selected to screen at the 2024 Stockholm International Film Festival.

Gone but Not Forgotten

The endless quest to feel grounded is something many of us experience throughout our lives, and Radha, a young girl living in 1980s middle-class India, is no exception. Her family is constantly moving due to her father’s position in the military, and stability is hard to come by. School friends come and go but Radha has grown to understand that she can always turn inward to find comfort and solace. However, she is not immune to loneliness and will resort to books and music as escapism. One day, Radha is sent to live with her well-off grandparents to continue her education, while her father and the rest of her family deal with his relocation details. It is the first time she can put down roots in a familiar setting.

Watch The Umesh Chronicles trailer here.

Then Radha meets Sundar, a young boy who helps out around the familial estate. She initially has little contact with Sundar who, like Radha, also mainly keeps to himself. They come from different backgrounds but there is no denying a shared kinship. Things are soon upended when Sundar runs away without warning, vanishing from Radha’s life without a trace. But life goes on, Radha focuses on her future and attends college. Leaving the past behind is her way of moving on. But as fate would have it, Radha and Sundar cross paths years later, and the memories of childhood start flooding back with tangible sensations.

An Impressive Crew Who Count Joachim Trier and Joanna Hogg as Collaborators

As the writer and director of the film, Pooja Kaul’s fingerprints are all over this delicate story of two different hierarchies navigating a changing society. An impressive crew brings this intimate and atmospheric portrait to life. Swedish Cinematographer Jakob Ihre leans into the atmospheric and dreamlike quality of the film’s surroundings. His work on previous films with similar aesthetics includes Thelma, Louder than Bombs, and Oslo, 31st August by critically acclaimed director Joachim Trier. Helle le Fevre serves as editor, and her background is equally impressive. She frequently collaborates with director Joanna Hogg, having worked on The Souvenir, The Souvenir: II, and The Eternal Daughter.

Takeaway

The Umesh Chronicles is a slow-burn art film that requires its audience to embrace patience and poise. Sitting through the slower scenes comes with great payoffs, including many musical moments. Says Kaul of the film’s greater themes, “The Umesh Chronicles is both timeless and of its time, a poem of life, both ancient and modern, a film for fathers, mothers, daughters, everywhere.”