India In a Day shows a nation in flux at Toronto

Richie Mehta’s infectiously lively and tactile documentary India in a Day is one of the more unusual titles to premiere at the 41st Toronto International Film Festival.

The film provides a record of a day in the life of India — midnight to midnight — to bring alive a nation overflowing with human stories of both beauty and pain.

India in a Day, powered by Google and executive produced by Ridley Scott and Anurag Kashyap, is an 86-minute documentary composed of videos shot on a single day — October 10, 2015 — by thousands of people across the country.

“The story of evolving India is the story of the evolving world,” says Mehta, who was born and raised in Canada but is now based in London. “This film presents a continuum of all our achievements. Parts of India still live the way that we did 1,000 years ago while the country has also sent a mission to Mars,” said Mehta.

Mehta has shot two features in India — Amal (2007) and Siddharth (2013) — and is currently filming a television series on the Delhi Police. He has spent enough time in the country to grasp its social and cultural nuances.