In rural India, families with mentally challenged children face impossible choices between love and survival. Debut filmmaker Jitank Singh Gurjar’s “ In Search of the Sky ” (“Vimukt”) confronts this harsh reality through the journey of a couple who bring their mentally unstable son to the Maha Kumbh — a massive Hindu pilgrimage held every 12 years that draws over 100 million devotees — desperately seeking healing. The Braj-language drama has landed in Toronto’s Centrepiece program for the festival’s 50th anniversary.

The film follows a couple facing old age and the risk of losing their land while caring for their adult son Naraan, who has intellectual disabilities. Desperate for a solution and clinging to faith as their last hope, they embark on a pilgrimage to the Maha Kumbh, where the

See Full Page