In rural India, families with mentally challenged children face impossible choices between love and survival. Debut filmmaker Jitank Singh Gurjar’s “In Search of the Sky” (“Vimukt”) confronts this harsh reality through the journey of a couple who bring their mentally unstable son to the Maha Kumbh — a massive Hindu pilgrimage held every 12 years that draws over 100 million devotees — desperately seeking healing. The Braj-language drama has landed in Toronto’s Centrepiece program for the festival’s 50th anniversary.
The film follows a couple facing old age and the risk of losing their land while caring for their adult son Naraan, who has intellectual disabilities. Desperate for a solution and clinging to faith as their last hope, they embark on a pilgrimage to the Maha Kumbh, where they must confront an impossible decision about their son’s future.
Producer and co-writer Pooja Vishal Sharma says the story emerged from her encounters at an NGO for children with intellectual disabilities and stories she’d heard about people getting lost or abandoned at the Kumbh Mela.
“My time there really made me question the tough balance between love and the heartbreaking circumstances faced by many families that have a child with special needs,” Pooja Vishal Sharma explains. “Through this story I tried to weave both of these experiences into a film, which highlights how society can be so ruthless, and how an ounce of hope can play such an important role in one’s journey.”
Theatre actor Nikhil Yadav takes on the challenging lead role of Naraan in his first major film performance. To prepare, he spent a week and a half at a shelter home for people with disabilities in Gwalior called Swarg Sadan.
“One thing that stood out for me was their absolute innocence, it’s so unfazed,” Yadav reflects. “I noticed they are full of love and laughter and just an undying hope. I tried to bring a lot of that into my character.”
The actor found filming at the Maha Kumbh particularly rewarding: “People would stop in the middle of their errands and watch me perform, they would try and help this mentally unstable young boy in their own ways and the actor in me would find his cues like that, all of a sudden – unasked but highly appreciated.”
Yadav notes the key difference between theater and film: “In theater, the audience is seated at a distance, and it’s harder for them to see the whirlpool of emotions an actor carries in their eye but the camera, it’s up close and It captures every detail even things you hope to hide.”
Cinematographer Shelly Sharma faced the monumental task of capturing an intimate family story within the overwhelming scale of the Maha Kumbh, where thousands of pilgrims filled every frame.
“When we got to Kumbh – adaptability was the element that proved indispensable,” Shelly Sharma explains. “In the midst of immense and uncontrollable crowds, the key was to begin small, focusing on the elements within reach that could be shaped to serve the vision.”
Shelly Sharma relied on deliberate blocking, telephoto lenses, and careful use of color palettes to maintain narrative focus. “For us, the crowd itself was an important narrative tool – we had to wove it in with care to preserve the authenticity of the Kumbh while ensuring the story, characters and their emotions remained the focal point.”
Drawing from nearly a decade of experience in both fiction and documentary formats, Shelly Sharma describes balancing realism with dramatic narrative: “The paradox of this craft is striking: in cinema, we often labor to make fiction feel real, while in documentary, we strive to imbue reality with a cinematic presence.”
As a largely self-funded production, the team faced significant logistical and financial constraints. Pooja Vishal Sharma, who also serves as producer, acknowledges the ongoing struggle: “Like any filmmaker I was clear in my head that we could not compromise of the quality of our vision. The story was our anchor and I’ve done everything in my power do justice to it.”
Pooja Vishal Sharma credits the committed team for overcoming limited resources: “The toughest part was shooting the first schedule of Maha Kumbh – it was a war zone and if this film manages to touch some hearts and may be, just may be change a life or to we would consider ourselves victorious.”
Gurjar emphasizes the film’s authentic approach: “I’ve seen characters like these since my childhood, the culture, the rituals, it’s all part of my upbringing. There are real stories like these happening very often around us so there was no need for an added melodrama, that would have just taken away from the truth of it all.”
The film’s selection at Toronto represents a major milestone for independent Indian cinema, placing their grassroots-made project alongside major global productions in the festival’s 50th anniversary celebration. The team hopes Toronto will unlock broader distribution opportunities beyond the festival circuit.
“From the very beginning, the vision for this film was always the big screen,” Pooja Vishal Sharma states. “As also an executive producer on the project, my vision for ‘Vimukt’ is to reach theater screens in India, to begin with we will be targeting limited screens. I truly believe that a film like this deserves to be experienced in theatres and that the people of India will resonate with the film closely.”
The creative team includes music director Manish Kumar, whose work has been showcased at major European festivals; editor Pavan Theurkar, a frequent Netflix collaborator (“Feels Like Ishq,” “Tooth Pari”); and executive producer Tushar Tyagi, an award-winning filmmaker whose short “Saving Chintu” was selected at over 30 Oscar- and BAFTA-qualifying festivals and qualified for the 93rd Academy Awards.
The title “Vimukt” carries the sense of liberation, representing what Gurjar describes as “an endless yet a hopeful journey.” As the film prepares for its world premiere, the team hopes audiences globally will find their own interpretation of this search for the sky.