'' Traces of Sandalwood '' ( ca, Rastres de sàndal, links=no) is a 2014 Spanish

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

produced by Pontas Films, directed by

María Ripoll María Ripoll i Julià (born 1963) is a Spanish film director from Barcelona, with an international background and eight feature films to her credit. The success of her film ''It's Now or Never (film), It's Now or Never'' has placed her as the hig ...

and shot in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

with

Nandita Das Nandita Das (born 7 November 1969) is an Indian actress and director. She has acted in over 40 feature films in ten different languages. Das appeared in the films ''Fire'' (1996), ''Earth'' (1998), '' Bawandar'' (2000), '' Kannathil Muthamittal' ...

as Mina and

Aina Clotet Aina Clotet Fresquet (Barcelona, September 23, 1982) is a Spanish actress and director known mainly for her participation in numerous series of the Catalan channel TV3 among which ''Estació d'enllaç'' and ''Infidels'' stand out. In 2015 she m ...

as Sita/Paula. The film is from Pontas Films and is the adaptation of international bestseller ''Traces of Sandalwood'', the tale of a

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

star's search for her long lost sister. The film was released in Spain on 28 November 2014.

Reewa Rathod Reewa Rathod is an Indian singer, songwriter, pianist, and performing artist. She is best known for her songs Maula (One Above) and Saaya Tere Ishq Ka. She won the Mirchi Music Award for Best Independent Song of The Year 2019 for her debut sin ...

makes her international debut with this film which has her composing one of the songs in the film, ''Tandaana''.

Plot

The film begins in high drama as 6-year-old Mina ( Vaibhavi Hankare) saves her newborn sister, Sita, from being drowned as an unwanted female, thereupon taking full responsibility for her care. But when their mother dies a few years later, their father hands them over to a woman from the city. Sita is left with nuns, despite her sister's frantic resistance, and young Mina is consigned to a brothel, from which she narrowly escapes. She finds work as a maid for a rich family, gaining an ally in Sanjay, the handsome son of the house. This melodramatic opener is suddenly revealed as a film-within-the-film, an autobiographical opus that Mina (Nandita Das), now a Bollywood superstar, is making with her director husband (the self-same Sanjay, now played by Subodh Maskara). The film marks the latest effort in Mina's unending 30-year search for her missing sister. Mina finally locates Sita in Barcelona and travels with Sanjay to be reunited with her. But little Sita has grown into a cold, remote scientist named Paula (Aina Clotet), who is totally unaware that she was even adopted, much less that she is of Indian descent. Flatly unreceptive, Paula angrily and summarily rejects Mina and her story. But a tense discussion with her adoptive parents and Mina's extensive documentation lead her to reluctantly entertain some curiosity about her roots and venture into an Indian video store. There, she meets Prakash (Naby Dakhli), who introduces her to her sister's films, and whose openness and quiet persistence, combined with Paula's sudden cinematic immersion in a vibrant culture, gradually wear down her defensiveness.

Cast

as Mina *

as Paula * Naby Dakhli as Prakash * Vaibhavi Hankare as Young Mina * Subodh Maskara as Sanjay * Rosa Novell as Paula's Mother

Music

The score was composed by Zeltia Montes and Simon Smith, each composer dealing with different sections of the drama. The score was nominated for the Catalan Film Academy's 2015 Gaudí Awards. The film won best picture at the same awards. The film also features several songs: "Far Away" by Anita Zengeza, "Vestida De Nit" by Silvia Pérez Cruz, and ''Tandaana'', especially composed for the film by the young composer and singer

Locations

The film was shot mainly in

and

References

External links