Firaaq

Firaaq English Separation is a 2008 Hindi political thriller, anthology film set one month after the 2002 violence in Gujarat, India and looks at the aftermath in its effects on the lives of everyday people. It claims to be based on a thousand true stories. Firaaq means both separation and quest in Arabic. The film is the directorial debut of actress Nandita Das and stars Naseeruddin Shah, Deepti Naval, Paresh Rawal, Raghubir Yadav, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Shahana Goswami, Amruta Subhash, Sanjay Suri, and Tisca Chopra. It has largely been well received locally and internationally. Firaaq won three awards at the Asian Festival of First Films in Singapore in December 2008, the Special Prize at the International Thessaloniki Film Festival, and an award at the Kara Film Festival in Pakistan. It won two National Film Awards at 56th National Film Awards.

Khan Saheb Naseeruddin Shah is an elderly Muslim classical vocalist, who remains blissfully optimistic of the situation happening around him. His servant, Karim Mian Raghubir Yadav, tries to alert him to the problems the Muslim community is facing, but Khan Saheb only realises the extent of the trauma upon seeing the destruction of a shrine dedicated to the Sufi saint, Wali Gujarati. A middleage Hindu housewife, Aarti Deepti Naval, is traumatised because she did not help a Muslim woman being chased by a mob and finds a way to atone for her sins upon finding Mohsin, a Muslim orphan who wanders the city in search for his family. Meanwhile her husband, Sanjay Paresh Rawal, and his brother, Deven Dilip Joshi, try to bribe police officers to prevent Devens arrest for gangrape. Muneera Shahana Goswami and her husband Hanif Nawazuddin Siddiqui, are a young Muslim couple who return home only to find it looted and burnt. Muneera struggles to relate to her Hindu neighbour Jyoti Amruta Subash in the following days, as she suspects her for taking part in the looting. Hanif, along with several other Muslim men, plan to retaliate against the violence and their helplessness by searching for a gun to exact revenge. Sameer Sanjay Suri Shaikh and Anuradha Desai Tisca Chopra are a wealthy, interreligious couple, whose store was burnt during the carnage. They decide to move to Delhi to escape the violence and Sameer comes into conflict with his wifes family over expressing his identity as a Muslim in India.Firaaq won top honours at the Asian Festival of First Films 2008 in Singapore, where it won the awards for Best Film, Screenplay Script, and Foreign Correspondents Assn. Purple Orchid Award for Best Film. The film has won awards at other international festivals, including the Special Prize award at the International Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece, the Special Jury Award at the International Film Festival of Kerala, and the Best Editor award for Sreekar Prasad at the Dub

Source: Wikipedia