Mehek, an Indian movie for children has been inducted into the course curriculum of a prominent United States university which intends to expose its students to other cultures. Mehek that happens to be the debut film of a Pune director Kranti Kanade, will consequently get screened this spring as a part of a course of the Otterbein College at Columbus in Ohio titled 'Modern India: Society, Culture and Literature'.

 

Otterbein was founded in the year 1847 and is among the oldest and most prestigious US universities. Mehek is a 2007 Hindi movie and the US University states that it explores a girl’s journey towards self-realization, while simultaneously describing the world of children and their rights. Produced by the Children's Film Society of India, Mehek is a film that goads its viewers to introspect.

 

It has been getting one award after another at international festivals, such as Best Film Award at the 10th Arpa Film Festival and the Best Feature Film (Family) Platinum Remi Award at the Houston Film Festival 2008. The course ‘Modern India: Society, Culture and Literature’ is taught by Jiten V. Ruparel. It also includes Aparna Sen's film 'Mr and Mrs Iyer' as well as Richard Attenborough's 'Gandhi'. Among the text, the students have to study 'The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cell-Phone' penned by Shashi Tharoor and 'The Namesake' by Jhumpa Lahiri.