Joseph Mathew grew up in Trivandrum in the seventies, when the distances seemed great and Mumbai or Bombay, as he refers to the city, was a mythical dream.

“It was the time of Fiats and Ambassadors and it would take two to three days to travel to Bombay,” says the New York-based Mathew, as he prepares for the Indian premiere of his first narrative feature film Bombay Summer at the International Film Festival in Goa.

“For me, the Bombay that existed was more in my head,” he says. “I passed through the city a few times and there was an image. I remember when I was a kid, people would go to Bombay and it was a big event for them. They would shut down their small lives in Kerala and travel to Bombay to make a living”

“But after I came to US, I started going back more often to Bombay and staying in the city,” he adds.  “And I always wanted to shoot a film in Bombay — capture the energy of the city in transition.”

Bombay Summer is a quiet and touching story about three friends (played by Tannishtha Chatterjee, Jatin Goswami and the Indian American actor Samrat Chakrabarti) as they weave their way through a city.

Last week the film swept the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival, winning the best actress award for Chatterjee, and two nods for Mathew — best director and best picture. 

The film is Mathew’s homage to the old city that is evolving into a modern metropolis.  “The film is a lot about change,” he says.  “The characters and the city are in a state of flux, but at the same time I wanted to pay a tribute to the Bombay of earlier days — the Bombay of chawls, old hand painted Bollywood posters and abandoned textiles mills.”

Bombay Summer is also an ode to the youth culture.  Mathew recalls the strong bonds he had with his friends growing up in Trivandrum.  “The relationships you build are very intense and you feel they are going to last a lifetime.

I wanted to transfer some of those emotions in this story.” In the film Chatterjee and Chakrabarti, both playing upper class characters, befriend a talented, but poor artist (Goswami) from the chawls.  The friendship between the three — crossing the class barriers, has some emotionally satisfying moments, but there is also a lot of heartache. 

“They each have amazing strengths, but they are also flawed,” Mathew says about his protagonists.  “They are trying to find themselves.  They have certain ambitions and certain drives, but then they have these weaknesses which pull them down. Unless you go through something like that, you do not find yourself.”

Chatterjee who had two films playing at the MIAAC festival (she plays a supporting role in  director Raja Menon’s Barah Aana) gives a well nuanced and complex performance of a woman drawn to the two men.  The other two leads are equally strong.  In directing the three actors, Mathew gave them a lot of room to explore their own characters. 

“I come from a documentary film background,” says Mathew.  His 2006 documentary Crossing Arizona played at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the grand jury prize.  “With Bombay Summer, I kept a lot of room for improvisation.  I laid the groundwork of the script solidly, but then I let the characters and the actors inform my decisions as a filmmaker.”

The other strengths of Bombay Summer are in its stunning cinematography by Amol Rathod and the melodious soundtrack by the French composer Mathias Duplessy, whose work is complemented by a four haunting songs by the Rajasthani Sufi singer Mir Mukhtiyar Ali.

“The music just happened by sheer chance,” Mathew says.  “I was very lucky since a friend introduced me to Mathias and Mukhtiyar.  It was at a party, where they had just met a few minutes ago and were performing together.  It was breathtaking and I knew I had found the music to my film.”