other title:
Heaven and hell on earth
Allan (Corin Nemec), an American, arrives in Ahmedabad searching for answers, to find internal peace and to understand the world and his troubled life. He choses India as his school and Gandhi as his subject of his thesis. It is here that he meets the Pithawala family — Cyrus (Naseeruddin Shah), his wife Shernaz (Sarika), son Parzan (Parzan Dastur) and daughter Dilshad (Pearl Barsiwala). The Pithawalas being Parsis follow Zoroastrianism. Through them and the teachings of an Gandhian, Allan starts to find peace of mind.
The Godhra incident happens wherein 58 Hindu religious piligrims are supposedly burnt alive by a Muslim mob.[7] As a reaction to this incident, communal riots ensue shortly thereafter wherein Muslims were attacked by Hindu mobs,[8] followed by Muslim attack on Hindus.[9] Amidst these riots, 10 year-old Parzan disappears. Cyrus, Shernaz and Dilshad manage to escape the carnage. In the aftermath of the riots, Cyrus searches for his missing child while fighting for his own sanity. While assisting the Pithawalas in their search, Allan battles to uncover the reason behind the riots in an effort to try and make some sense of the incident. People start to question government's official explanation of the incident which downplays any conspiracy. As a result, a Human Rights Commission is formed. Through the commission, several witnesses and victims testify against the indifference of the police to protect them from the rioters. The film ends with a dedication to the victims of communal violence.
