Indian guy, Neuroscientist, and American girl, Anthropologist, backpack 8000km - small towns and villages - capturing contradictions of India.

Riding on a Sunbeam: Journeys through Space, Time, Life and Love is a special and exciting travel film that follows Mauktik Kulkarni (an Engineer turned Neuroscience student turned Zen traveler) and Sammy Jo (a Berkeley undergrad taking a gap semester), in an unconventional touristy way. Playfully, abundantly and on occasions, acutely, they explore the contradictions of our Indian society with interesting perspectives, exploring economically developed places alongside backward regions, staunchly nationalistic mind sets side by side with the insurgency prone pockets and the socially conservative elements that co-exist with countless liberal lifestyles, all within the same India. Through smaller stories experienced throughout with the eyes of the two protagonists, Mauktik, who now turns to his own country after a 36-country trip, and Sammy, who has never seen India before. The film creates a mosaic of India that is at once exhilarating, reflective, enchanting and laughable, in a way that has rarely been seen before.—Brahmanand Singh

No matter what you say about India, the exact opposite is also true. This film captures the contradictions of India in a month-long backpacking trip across three dimensions: social norms, economic development, and a sense of national unity.—Brahmanand Singh