They say that in every musician, there is a story…and in the story of one musician, there are the stories of many others..

Finding Carlton – Uncovering the Story of Jazz in India. tells the universal story of the jazz musician, with a unique flavor. This captivating and unique 73-minute character driven film takes audiences on a richly atmospheric journey into India’s little-known jazz age, which lasted from the 1920s to the 1970s, through a portrait of surviving Indian jazzman, the maverick guitarist Carlton Kitto, who chose to continue as a ‘gigging’ be-bop guitarist in the relative obscurity of Calcutta over emigration, commercial studio work or Bollywood.

Finding Carlton – Uncovering the Story of Jazz in India tells the unknown and mesmerizing story of a bygone age of jazz in India through the moving portrait of one of its last survivors, Carlton Kitto. A maverick dedicated to pure jazz, particularly bebop, Carlton, 68, is an unsung cultural custodian who has nurtured hundreds of young musicians in the jazz idiom, and who still plays to half-empty Calcutta hotels.

But where did all this come from ? How did this music from America find a home in India ? And how did India respond to it?

Weaving verité scenes of Carlton’s isolated, impoverished, yet passionately dedicated existence, Finding Carlton uncovers, through archival material and poignant encounters with other artists, an untold story of cultural cross-pollination: born of pre-war African-American diaspora, American Army presence in Calcutta during the Second World War; and of US State Department sponsored jazz tours in India. The influence of these events is profound and far-reaching. Jazz actually enters the popular music of India, we learn, as the film also illuminates the influence of American jazz on Bollywood.

Carlton’s journey is counterpointed with that of India’s celebrity jazzman ‘Louiz Banks’ a grammy nominated artist. Louiz is as passionate about jazz as Carlton and their paths have crossed along the way. The film weaves Carlton’s story with Louiz’s journey to fame.

The new sound’s of jazz transform the music and the rapid changes in the music, propel it into a unique fusion that synthesizes the western form with a deep rooted ancient Indian musical heritage.
For Carlton, though, its ‘Charlie Christian, Charlie Christian’

The rapidly changing Indian environment forces the few remaining jazz musicians including Carlton to make difficult choices, once again revealing the universal story of the jazz musician. Where other jazz artists of his generation, including Louiz Banks, chose to flee post Independence Communist run Calcutta for prosperity in Bollywood, Carlton remained; devoting himself to his craft and to sustaining an ever-shrinking jazz community in a city hostile to all reminders of India’s colonial past.

The film also features Dan Morgenstern, ‘the keeper of American Jazz History’ who shares insighful comments and observation that enhance the historical underpinnings of the film. From India, Naresh Fernandes, collector of Bombay jazz archives, author and journalist steers the story with his wealth of fact and historical detail

Michael Steinman of Jazz Lives writes, after a preview screening, ‘Kurien has a splendid eye — even though this is his first film — for the little human details that bring both individual characters and a larger world (now, perhaps no longer quite so vibrant) into focus and into our hearts. FINDING CARLTON blossoms with lovely montages of the present and the past, the aural and the visual, the moving and the still. It is respectful but never dull, informative but never preachy or didactic.’

Marc Myers of JazzWax.com, offers this comment ‘ ‘Finding Carlton is at once illuminating and captivating. Through sterling direction and story-telling, the film manages to preserve Indian jazz culture while also informing even the wisest jazz fan about the music’s migration from American to Europe and to India. It’s a story that has escaped most American jazz listeners until now. Through this film, we learn the story of jazz’s development in India, brought to life by passionate, living Indian jazz musicians. But perhaps most remarkable is how all jazz musicians—no matter where they reside on the globe—share the same love and veneration for the music and its originators. In Finding Carlton, you see firsthand how jazz has come to be a transnational language.’

The filmmaker and editor Ken Levis adds ‘FInding Carlton is wonderful film that artfully balances the fascinating and little known history of jazz in India with a touching human drama of a great jazz musician in the twilight of his career. FIlled with humor and humanity, it is a story that lifts the spirit, and sparkles with a soundtrack of musical gems.’

Artfully edited in a rhythmic, multi-layered, warmly intimate and affectionate style, Finding Carlton revives the intense power of a largely undocumented jazz movement, weaving memory, concert footage and expert commentary with scenes of moving reunion between elder Indian jazz pioneers. Centered on Carlton’s idiosyncratic lifestyle and progressively gathering force to relate the story of an entire Indian jazz generation,

Filmed in HD by a superb team of cinematographers including Mukul Avijit Kishore and Matt Bockelman, with sound handled by Suresh Rajamani, the film rapidly engages the viewer in both the history and the personal stories of the characters. Sensitively edited by Rikhav Desai, Finding Carlton is directed by Susheel Kurien

Finding Carlton – Uncovering the Story of Jazz in India is an exceptionally original and lovingly crafted new HD documentary that will enthrall audiences worldwide.