// BBC ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS — MODA & SOCIETÀ
An Indian film that nobody would release is finally a hit - 18 awards later
Pyre's protagonists are Bubu and Aama – local terms for grandfather and grandmother
A film about the tender love and quiet loneliness of an elderly couple, which took two years to reach cinemas after it was completed, is wowing critics and audiences across India.
The 111-minute Pyre, directed by television journalist-turned-filmmaker Vinod Kapri, also explores the pressing issue of outmigration which has left hundreds of picturesque Himalayan hamlets abandoned and turned them into ghost villages. It further reflects on the impact of climate change, which has made the region's weather increasingly harsh.
On social media, many Indians have shared videos showing audiences leaving theatres with tears in their eyes. Others have posted that they have not been so moved by a film in a long time.
The film's lead actors, ordinary villagers who had never faced a camera before, have also won praise from some of Bollywood's most respected figures, including Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher.
Pyre's protagonists - Padam Singh (played by Kapri's uncle, Padam Singh) and Tulsi (played by Heera Devi) - are Bubu and Aama, local terms for grandfather and grandmother. The couple live in a small home in the mountains of the northern state of Uttarakhand .
It's a place where age is measured against momentous events. Singh was born two years before the outbreak of World War II. Tulsi was born in the year atomic bombs were dropped on Japan.
There are no roads and no electricity. Whenever the couple need help – which is often as Tulsi frequently has to be carried to hospital – Padam Singh uses a traditional long-horn instrument to summon neighbours. In return for their kindness, he pays them with goats.
For Padam Singh and Tulsi, bickering is their love language
"There's nothing here – just mountains," as one character puts it. So the young leave in search of greener pastures, and those who depart this beautiful, but blighted, land rarely return.