When sudden hearing loss shatters her identity, a young Indian musician is left in silence until the echoes of memory, touch, and culture help her reclaim music and herself.
When Lakshmi, a young Indian singer, loses her hearing, she hides the truth from her mother, Savita—a devoted sitar player—as they ready themselves for a sacred temple performance. A moment of danger forces the truth into the open, and mother and daughter are left to face the silence together. Through grief and love, Lakshmi learns to make music again—by feeling vibrations, reading movement, and trusting memory—transforming loss into a new way of listening, and silence into song.
Radha Mehta (she/her) is a civil engineer-turned-filmmaker with an MFA in Film Directing at American Film Institute, and MBA from Kellogg School of Management, and a voting member of The Recording Academy. Her works stem from personal experience as an Indian first-gen mother raised in the US, exploring themes of motherhood, women empowerment, family business, and dismantling cultural taboos around mental health and disabilities. Radha's award winning films include DOSH (Slamdance Spirit Award, Cannes Lions YDA Nominee, Princess Grace Award Nominee, Jury & Audience Winner of Bengalaru Int'l and Tasveer Film Festivals); Winds of Silence (16Days16Films w/ UN Women, Geena Davis Institute, TimesUp); SŪNNA (CAPE Julia Gouw Grant Winner); Witness (InsideOut RE:Focus Winner, Islamic Scholarship Fund); Standing With Moms (Jury Winner for Women's Voices Now), Evan Ever After (Jury & Audience Winner of Florida Film Festival & Out On Film); and Being Gina (STARZ/Lionsgate/WRAP Top 3 Finalist).
Premiere Available
CAPE Julia Gouw Grant 2024/25
"Lakshmi" - Aaliya Mehta
"Savita" - Anisha Nagarajan
