Listen Amaya

The proverbial 'small film with a large heart'.

A simple, yet poignant story of a single mother and daughter, with a beautiful relationship, and the upheaval it faces when the daughter realizes that her mother is in a relationship. 

It's low budget, so not opulent, but elegant and graceful.... and what carries it through is the powerful portrayals by Deepti Naval and Farook Sheikh (a favourite pair since days of Chashme Badoor, in fact he even calls her Chamko somewhere along.). And Swara Bhaskar as Amaya was pretty convincing too. 

There are so many lovely facets to the movie. 'Book a Coffee' is a quaint and soulful library cum coffee shop run by Deepti Naval, a middle aged widow, as interesting and charming as the coffee shop. Amaya is her twenty two year old free spirited, outspoken and bold daughter, and they share a wonderful and open mother daughter relationship.

After having lost her husband, who she dearly loved, Leela refuses to become a wall flower and out of that desire is born Book a Coffee, which her daughter also helps run. Into this protected space, comes in Jayant a retired but passionate photographer. 

Leela falls in love again.

Given how modern and open minded Amaya is, Leela seems to presume she will accept Jayant without an issue, and that's the crux of the story.

Only personal experiences can test ones own 'progressive' thinking....its where you are put on the block and you only then know whether you have the mettle to figure things out, and the humility and love enough to think for yourself  and do what you think right.

I also really liked the easy relationship between Leela and Jayanth, how they can get lost in each others company just playing chinese checkers ( can't help but recall.....it used to be a favorite...... I've spent hours and hours playing chinese checkers with my mother in law :)

Other characters are beautifully woven into the film to protect the space and story. 

Listen Amaya is a contemporary, sensitive film about relationships, family dynamics, conditioning, clarity and priorities, and above all ......listening.