Lord Curzon Ki Haveli

Logline: Four Desis (South Asians) in London meet over a thoroughly unplanned dinner party. “There is a dead body in the trunk” says Rohit to his guests (Ira & Basuki)on arrival. Ira laughs it off, Basuki takes it seriously. A revelatory night of madness ensues.

Synopsis: Rohit is a techno-geek who migrated to the UK as a highly skilled worker about 10 years ago. Working in a big software firm, he played a key role in digitising the social welfare system of the country. Sanya is the only companion in his otherwise lonely life.Sanya moved to UK for higher studies and never went back. She fell in the love with the city. During her university days she got a couple of acting offers. Such characters weren’t aplenty so her choices were limited. In her thirties now, she waits on tables in an English pub.

Ira often visits the pub where Sanya works. They form an extraordinary bond. A newly-wed bride from India, Ira is full of surprises. The irony of her life is thatit’s her marriage that brought her to London where she feels free but it’s her husband that comes in the way of her freedom. Basuki, Ira’s husband, is an anglophile doctor whose parents mi- grated from Uganda during Idi Ameen’s era. Basuki loves England and Englishmen.He feels great about being able to serve them as a doctor and is grateful for India’s colonisation that according to him “civilised the country a little”. Basuki is aliving paradox. When Basuki and Ira visit Rohit and Sanya, they are surprised to find the hosts thoroughly unprepared. Rohit makes a joke about Lord Curzon’s body lying in a trunk and Basuki believes it to be true. The joke will get the better of Basuki and he will go to any extent to verify it.

The film is an account of five immigrant Asians living in the West & their extraordinary lives, all in the course of a dark, funny and revelatory evening.

Runtime: 106  Minutes

Starring: Arjun Mathur; Rasika Dugal; Zoha Rahman; Paresh Pahuja

Director: Anshuman Jha