Firaaq

Firaaq is an Urdu word that means both separation and quest. Nandita Das’s fiction film takes place over twenty-four hours, one month after the violence in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002. It follows the emotional journeys of ordinary people: some of them victims, some perpetrators, some who chose to watch in silence. Das’s first film as a director premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on 5 September 2008 and opened in India on 20 March 2009. It played at more than fifty festivals and won more than twenty awards, taking best film and best screenplay at the Asian Festival of First Films in Singapore. Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal and Nawazuddin Siddiqui are in the cast.