With the permission of the filmmakers, I am delighted and honoured that British South Asians in Film is able to premiere Isher Sahota’s wonderful short film, The Saint Of Southall (2020), a magical-realist parable about the power of faith.
Written and directed by Sahota, based on a short story by Israel Zangwill. Aleena and Rohit, played by Mona Goodwin and Small Axe: Red, White And Blue’s (2020) Assad Zaman, are a young couple living in a shared house in Southall, West London. In the same home we find Kulwinder (Kulwant Sahota), Kulwinder’s wheelchair bound grandson Amar (Jahan Anand) and Tejinder (Bhasker Patel), amongst other residents. Tejinder believes he has seen a divine apparition whilst out on a walk. Coinciding with the religious festival Vaisakhi, upon hearing about the vision Kulwinder is adamant that the resonance of the sighting on such a holy day will heal her grandson. But has there simply been a misunderstanding?
The Saint Of Southall is beautifully shot, capturing a town in an extraordinary way, almost like a dream, and I adored Goodwin and Zaman’s performances. There’s a real intensity to the characters of Aleena and Rohit, as if you’ve joined them at a crossroads, with their relationship drawing you in.
As a huge fan of the Harwant Bains’s penned Wild West (1992), I must admit to also geeking out over Bhasker Patel returning in a film where the setting of Southall is very much a part of the narrative. The film strikingly depicts the coming together of people to celebrate Vaisakhi in such an honest way. Southall becomes a place of excitement, energy and confusion, where generations intersect respectfully, an echo of the short film itself. So often diaspora communities are shown at moments of trauma, and the importance of capturing such incidents cannot be understated. See the documentary series Defiance: Fighting The Far Right (2024), the Southall photographs of Chris Steele-Perkins, or Sahota’s 2021 Vice News documentary short, Crime And COVID In London’s Little India. However, what Sahota also shows us in The Saint Of Southall is an appreciation of community, and sometimes that’s all I simply want, a little positivity.
When I first watched Sahota’s short film, Jinn (2017), I was incredibly excited to catch the trailer to The Saint Of Southall afterwards, keen to discover what else the director was working on. I’m very proud to be able to support Sahota in having The Saint Of Southall premiere on this platform. Revisiting this blog after first posting back in 2021, I am further excited to direct you to Sahota’s directorial film debut, The Effects Of Lying (2023). Starring Ace Bhatti, the film is a comedy drama about a dutiful husband and father having a very bad day.
Original posting 24 January 2021, updated 14 August 2024.
