Desire 
35 MM/Color/2009

The story of The Desire mainly revolves around Gouthami, an accomplished Odissi dancer and Jai Leang, a talented artist. They get introduced to each other during Gouthami’s tour of Malasia for a performance. The film follows the journey of their respective lives until they’re brought together.

Gouthami’s life revolves entirely around dance. She channalizes all her desires into this art form which we considers pure and sacred. Gouthami comes across as a strong, calm, determined women of substance who is untouched by the attention showered on her by her numerous admires. She believes she’s here for a purpose which is dance and this means everything to her. She blocks all other thoughts from her mind focusing all her energies on her art.

Jai leang, a young painter and sculptor, is of mixed parentage, with a Chinese father and Malay-Indian mother. She lives in KualaLumpur. His art is highly influenced by the communist culture prevalent in China during his childhood. Jai is an introvert, whose passion towards his beliefs is revealed in his art.

Gouthami’s grace and charm appeal to Jai immensely and he begins to fall in love with her. She doesn’t reciprocate his feelings initially and returns to India shortly after her performance in KL. Though she doesn’t admit it to him, Jai does leave an impression on Gouthami’s mind. A couple of years later, Garysukarno, self styled cultural impresario based in KL organizes an exhibition of Jai’s paintings and sculptures in Mumbai thus bringing Jai to India. On his arrival he begins his quest for Gouthami and travels all over the country in hope of finding her. He eventually finds her in a monastery with a 4 year old boy. They meet after her initial disinterest to see him. She even consents to him painting a portrait of herself. That night turns out to be very memorable and fateful for two of them and transforms Gouthami’s life for ever.

Colourful characters like Musui, a boy in his early teens adopted by the Nrityagram inhabitants, Nalini, a Lesbian who longs and desires for Gouthami in vain, satisfying herself with other dancers, Frederic Norman Souza, an accomplished, witty artist add an interesting aspect to the story.

Essentially, The Desire is a passionate film mainly dealing with dance, music, art, culture and emotions.

Cast: Shilpa Shetty, Xia Yu, Jayaprada, Vikram Gokhle, Sheetal Menon, Nakul Vaid, Aasif Sheikh, Bikramjeet, Bijay Lakshmi, Shweta Khanduri, Vinayak Gananya and Anupam Kher.

Direction, story and screenplay: R.Sarath
Producer: Sharad R. Hegde
Co-Producer: Shi-Yun
Music Composer: Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Lyrics: Sameer
Cinematographer: Sajan Kalathil
Dialogues: Tim Langford & Amitabh Verma
Editor: Bina Paul
Sound: S.K. Srivastava
Art Director: Harish Kumar
Costume Designer: Neeta Lulla
Choreographer: Sumeet Vinod & Ratikant Mahapatra
Line Producer: Abdul Karim Borkar
Publicity Designs: Studio Link Pvt. Ltd.