Cosmic Current

When a life-threatening illness strikes his family, Indo-Canadian filmmaker Anand Ramayya finds himself on a modern-day spiritual pilgrimage to India. He's joined by his traditional Hindu mother, Jaya, his psychologist/filmmaker father, Ray, and his Japanese rock star brother, Raj. From Saskatchewan and Japan to the south of India, what unfolds is an intimate and entertaining portrait of a family trying to reconnect.

Their vivid and revelation-filled journey takes them to Tirupati, an ancient site of Hindu worship in India. They've come at the request of Jaya, to pray for her health. It is the first time the family has been together in India for 25 years, and the road is filled with surprises.

This quirky documentary mixes first-person diary cam, lively interviews, and on-the-fly footage to put a fresh spin on universal questions of ethnicity, home and self. The pilgrimage ends by transforming a family that had grown apart.

Cosmic Current was produced as part of the Reel Diversity Competition for emerging filmmakers of colour. Reel Diversity is a National Film Board of Canada initiative in partnership with CBC Newsworld.