‘Backwaters’ brings a mystery of India

'Kamla',Provoked', 'Bawandar' and 'Improper Conduct' famed Indian born Hollywood director, Jagmohan Mundhra's ‘Backwaters’ is now being screened at Rio cinema, Colombo.

Starring Tamzin Outhwaite, Jason Flemyng, Gulshan Grover, Nicholas Irons and Sandra Teles, the film narrates the story of a couple who meet with a tragedy in their journey to India in search of healing both mentally and physically.

Andy (Nicholas Irons) is driving his pretty wife, TV soap-star Lili (Tamzin Outhwaite) home from a party at her brother Jason's house, (Jason Flemyng). They have a serious car crash - Andy miraculously escapes unhurt but Lili is left wheelchair bound. Her career is ruined - she drinks to ease the pain.

Six months later, their marriage in trouble, they fly to Southern India, where Lili hopes to benefit from the renowned Ayurvedic healing treatments found in the beautiful backwaters of Kerala. Private massages are arranged on their houseboat and after long daily sessions, a bitter and angry Lili, still blaming Andy for the accident, starts to show a slight but significant improvement. Andy's writing career is going through a bad patch. Looking for inspiration, he takes long walks along the backwaters while Lili is occupied with her treatment. During one such stroll, he meets a stunningly beautiful local Indian girl. Inevitably, a lovers' tryst begins and they start meeting in the afternoons.

Returning to his houseboat from one such idyllic rendezvous, Andy discovers that his bad-tempered wife has disappeared. After a frantic search, the police find Lili's lifeless body caught in a local fisherman's net. Despite their differences, Andy is devastated by Lili's gruesome fate. As nothing has been stolen from the houseboat he is immediately a prime suspect. The Police quickly hear about the couple's continuous alcohol-fuelled bickering and that Andy is to be the beneficiary of Lili's enormous life insurance policy.

With his innocence now seriously in question, Andy is relying on his lover to simply confirm that they were together all afternoon, providing him with his crucial alibi. When she refuses, he starts to realise that something weird is going on. The Inspector, reluctantly, has no choice but to charge him. Is he being framed? Who would do this to him? Andy does not understand. He must try to find out who really killed LilI.

Jagmohan Mundhra's film, Bawandar won several international and national awards including Best Picture in the film-festivals: San Jose, Bermuda, Houston, Zanzibar and Karachi and best actress for Nandita Das in Santa Monica, and Best Music for Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt in Karachi.

It also won the V. Shantaram award for cinematic excellence for best regional film, best actor, best actress, best cinematography, best director and best editor. In 2002, his film, Kamla was invited to be screened at the prestigious Film Society of Lincoln Centre as a part of a retrospective on the career of Shabana Azmi.