India, Sept. 14 -- Vimukt (In Search of the Sky), which premiered at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival, takes the viewer right inside the villages of Madhya Pradesh, where one poverty-stricken elderly couple live with their mentally challenged son. It is not a pretty picture, and neither does it intend to be.

Social stigma and constant harassment arrive every day, as debutant director Jitank Singh Gurjar establishes from the very first scene. This is India, somehow left behind, in disarray. To survive, faith is the only reasonable solution. But, faith itself dispenses with reason- a dilemma that ultimately forms the crux of this sensitively drawn out feature.

Vimukt does not waste much time in drawing out the daily routine of...