PATANG flies high at awards in NYC

Ever since indie flick PATANG,“The Kite” – a film by Writer/Director, Prashant Bhargava, and Producer, Jaideep Punjab, – released, there has been no keeping it tied down. The movie has been the talk of film lovers around the world. This fact was further confirmed by the movie’s recent win at the South Asian Rising Stars Film Awards in New York City, where it won BEST PICTURE and Prashant Bharvaga snagged BEST DIRECTOR.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XeuR_82f-WU

The event was held on October 23, 2012 and was hosted by Hollywood director, Jay Chandrashekar, and porn-star / aspiring Bollywood Actress, Sunny Leone. South Asian Rising Stars in Film Awards was a distinguished evening that recognized the extraordinary achievement of South Asians in film.

The jury consisted of Indian film critic, Rajeev Masand; India Abroad editor, Arthur Pais; singer/songwriter and Goldspot frontman, Siddhartha Khosla; American actress and musician Janina Gavankar and American actor Maulik Pancholy.

PATANG is a poetic journey to the old city of Ahmedabad, and weaves together the stories of six people transformed by the energy of India’s largest kite festival. It is one of the most critically celebrated Indian films of the year. It had its world premiere at the BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL and its North American premiere in competition at the TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL. Since, the film has gone on to play at 30 film festivals worldwide and has won numerous accolades including:

Best Feature Narrative at the HAWAII INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Best World Narrative at the INDY FILM FESTIVAL
Special Jury Award and the Best Feature Narrative at the DC APA FILM FESTIVAL
Special Jury Award at the OSIAN’s FILM FESTIVAL (New Delhi), and now
Best Picture and Best director at the SOUTH ASIAN RISING STARS FILM AWARDS (NYC)

Not to mention, the esteemed film reviewer, Roger Ebert, gave PATANG 4 STARS in the CHICAGO SUN TIMES and wrote:

“The storytelling is effortlessly made part of the hypnotically beautiful visuals, and woven into a kaleidoscope of colors, faces, music and a little romance. Bhargava is masterful!”

THE NEW YORK TIMES gave PATANG a CRITIC’S PICK writing –

“Prashant Bhargava’s first feature, has a lovely, unforced quality… themes appear: about wealth in the new India, family responsibility, old ways versus modern ones. They seem fresh here. So does “Patang.””

The LOS ANGELES TIMES wrote,