Wanted to know how trauma gets passed on: 'Calorie' director on 1985 Air India bombing

Mumbai, "Calorie" is a deeply personal film, says director Eisha Marjara, who wanted to explore themes of intergenerational trauma through the story of a Sikh Indo-Canadian family living through the shadow of a tragedy.

The film, which had its international premiere at the 56th International Film Festival of India last month, follows the story of Monika , a single mother of a Sikh Canadian family who sends her two daughters Alia and Simi on a trip to India to visit family and reconnect with their Punjabi heritage.

But during their stay, Alia and Simi get to know that their grandmother was one of the victims of the 1985 Air India flight bombing, which was linked to militant Sikh separatists. They were led to believe that their grandmother had died in a car accident.

Marjara has drawn a lot from her own story for the film. Her mother and younger sister boarded Air India flight 182 from Montreal in 1985, which exploded mid-air killing all the passengers.