Jaisalmer - The golden city

Set in bureaucratic Lutyens’ Delhi and ancient exotic Jaisalmer, Chai Pani etc. is a bittersweet coming of age story, of earnest US returned filmmaker, Satya. While subtle intense newbie, Zafar Karachiwala, as the idealistic Satya, struggles against official sloth, hypocrisy, corruption, and censorship, Konkona Sen ( National Award - Best Actress) brilliantly plays the two modern women who battle for his heart: the fun loving, ambitious fashion designer Radha and the elegant, sensitive Shanti, who works in a charity. Adding to the chaos, is hilarious Sinia Duggal as Satya’s pushy aunt, who tries to trap him into a traditional marriage and hysterically funny Gaurav Kapur, as Satya’s cynical friend, who lives by the perverted rules of networks of power and patronage.

Created in 1571 by Akbar, the greatest of the Mughal Emperors, Fatehpur Sikri, laid the foundations of a culture whose impact still reverberates in North India. His free thinking, open minded and innovative attitude is expressed in the design of the main mosque, in the innovative roofscapes, and in the unique composition of the palace complex, based on a delicate system of a series of balancing axes. Exquisite Miniature paintings from the imperial atelier evoke the court and the events linked to the creation of Fatehpur Sikri. Three Hindustani classical ragas, which are said to have been composed by Tansen, the legendary ” jewel ” of Akbar’s court, go with the images.