Amal (film)
| Amal | |
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poster
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| Directed by | Richie Mehta |
| Produced by | Steven Bray |
| Written by |
Richie Mehta Shaun Mehta |
| Starring |
Rupinder Nagra Naseeruddin Shah Seema Biswas Koel Purie Vik Sahay Roshan Seth |
| Music by | Dr. Shiva |
| Cinematography | Mitchell Ness |
| Edited by | Stuart A. McIntyre |
| Distributed by | Seville Pictures (Canada) |
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Release date
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Running time
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101 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English Hindi |
| Budget | $5 million |
Amal (Hindi: अमल) is a 2007 Canadian drama film directed and written by Richie Mehta. Set in modern-day New Delhi, India, it tells the story of a poor autorickshaw driver, Amal Kumar.
The film was originally released as a short film in 2004, with the same lead actor but a mostly different cast, before it was readapted and expanded into a feature film three years later.
Amal Kumar (Rupinder Nagra) is an honest, hardworking sweet-natured autorickshaw driver who charges the metre rate and is never late to pick up his regular fares: the store merchant Pooja (Koel Purie) and a schoolboy who is the son of exacting lawyer Sapna Agarwal (Seema Biswas).
While riding in Amal's autorickshaw on one occasion, Pooja has her handbag snatched out of her hands by a beggar girl (Tanisha Chatterjee). Amal immediately pursues the girl and the chase ends when the beggar girl is hit by a car. Amal and Pooja take the girl to hospital. Amal visits the girl regularly, speaks to her doctor and makes sure to remind the nurses to take good care of her.
One day Amal offers his services to an old man who has been wandering the streets of New Delhi searching for an honest man. His identity is only revealed later in the film as local billionaire G.K. Jayaram (Naseeruddin Shah). After asking Amal some questions about his life, making insulting comments about his driving skills, and going back on his words with regard to his destination, G.K. pays the fare, and is surprised that Amal does not accept a three rupee tip.
G.K. Jayaram subsequently dies and leaves his entire estate to the one honest man he believes to have encountered – Amal. His will is not to be read until Amal reports to Jayarams' lawyer Sapna, who has no idea that Amal is her son's autorickshaw driver. If Amal is not found within a month, G.K.'s estate will be inherited by his family members. Sapna deploys Suresh (Roshan Seth), G.K.'s long time companion, to find Amal, but Suresh and G.K.'s son Vivek hatch a plan to render the search for Amal ineffective so that after a month the Jayarams’ can claim inheritance.
In the meantime, although Priya's condition improves, the beggar girl is in need of a difficult surgery that would cost 50,000 rupees. Amal decides to sell his autorickshaw in order to pay for the girl's surgery. Priya dies on the operating table. Amal then takes up a janitor position at a local post office. Touched by Amal's kindness and self-sacrifice, Pooja digs into the money she has been saving for her dowry and buys a carburetor she knows is needed to fix an abandoned auto-rickshaw lying by Amal’s house. She takes it to Amal so he can install it and return to his usual business.
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