Language is the Key

A sweet and poignant tale about a little girl who is desperately shy and longs for the confidence to play with other children and to be as popular as her Dad, the local ice-cream man. She uses her Dad as a shield against the outside world but in order to find her own feet she must leave this security behind.

Against the backdrop of Partition, independent India’s first hockey team defeats England, their erstwhile coloniser, to win the Gold at the 1948 London Olympics. Six decades later, when Nandy Singh, a member of this iconic team suffers a stroke, his tenacious struggle to recover, inspires his daughter to retrace his journey. Using archival footage and interviews with teammates, she reveals lives shaped by the Gold, and by Partition that made them refugees. Revealed also is a friend in Pakistan never spoken of before. Her journey in search of him morphs into a quest for the lost ‘watan’ (homeland).

Two children who feel sure they died terrible deaths and have been born again tell their extraordinary stories. Nicola, aged 12, lives in Keighley, Yorkshire, near to the railway tracks where she played in the 19th century in another life. Titu, aged 6, lives in north India in the shadow of the Taj Mahal. He alleges he was gunned down by a murderer