Elham, a film made by AU alumnus to be screened at Rainbow film festival in UK – Times of India

Prayagraj: Making his alma mater—English department of Allahabad University—proud, Dhruva Harsh’s feature film ‘Elham’ has been selected as the only children film from India to be showcased at the 24th Rainbow International Film Festival being held in London from May 28 to June 4.
Amongst hundreds of entries from countries like China, Pakistan, South Korea, Iran, Croatia, Armenia, Finland, Taiwan, Bangladesh and Kazakhstan, five feature films from India have been officially nominated to the festival including Harsh’s Elham, the only children film.
The festival will also witness other films from the country including ‘Abhijan’ by Parambrata Chattopadhyay,’Aprajito’ by Anik Dutta, ‘Gargi’ a Tamil film by Gautam Ramachandran featuring Sai Pallavi.
Elham received its place amongst some of the best films made this year in India subcontinent and outside. Before London, Elham premiered at 21st Dhaka International Film Festival, Bangladesh.
Elham, meaning inspiration, is a children’s feature film, written and directed by Dhruva Harsh and jointly produced by Content Engineers and Jungle Boy Entertainment. This film is based on the symbiosis of a boy and goat that offers an insight into the annual Muslim festival celebrated across South Asia and its traditional sacrifice of a goat. In these circumstances, a Sufi mystic, and Faizan’s friendship with a sacrificial goat, helps fortify the children’s faith thereby justifying the film’s title, and the film beautifully captured by cinematographer Ankur Rai, informs Harsh who has done his PhD from English department of AU in 2017.
Interestingly, the role of young kid Faizan is played by Toyo Chan, while his sister Tot Chan plays Fatima in the film. Both these children are Buddhist, yet they have dutifully done justice to the characters who are devout Muslims. The role of Faizan’s father, Rafique, is played by Mahmood Hashmi while his wife, Safina, is played by Guneet Kaur. The story is set in a village of Uttar Pradesh
Dhruva Harsh is a filmmaker/ writer and creative head at Content Engineers. Dhruva has done his masters and doctorate in English from the University of Allahabad and trained under the theatre maker Prof Sachin Tewari and Pravin Shekhar.
Before Elham Dhruva has made shorts, documentaries entitled “Honourable Mention” (2015), “Harshit” (2018), followed by “Do I Exist: A Riddle” (2019) and “The Last Sketch” (2022), a feature documentary based on hand—rickshaw—pullers of Kolkata. His films have been screened at many film festivals in India and abroad and are now streaming on OTT.
Last February, Dhruva shot his second feature film as a writer and director entitled “Parable” based on Plato’s allegory, which talks about the academic world and politics around it. The film is set in Allahabad, Lucknow and Delhi and produced by Pooja Pathak, an alumnus of Allahabad University and CEO at Antral Films.
The film has been jointly produced by Dr Raj Kishor Khaware, Utpaal Acharya, Saurabh Varma, Vickey Prasad, Vikas Yadav and Rati Tandon.