A Pandit family in Jammu keeps trying to return to the ancestral house in Anantnag in Kashmir from which they fled decades ago. Although part of the same region, Jammu and Anantang seems like different countries to Poshkar Nath Koul (MK Raina), his wife, their son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. It’s easy enough to plan a trip, but there are invisible barriers to setting foot in the place that once was home. Batt Koch (The Lost Lane), directed by debut filmmakers Ankit Walli and Siddarth Koul and produced by Vinayak Razdan, is a story of displacement and resilience, cultural loss and memory. The Jammu household is a mix of Kashmiri, which the elders speak, and Hindi, which the grandchildren prefer. When Poshkar does find his way back, he finds that much has changed, and a great deal hasn’t. Unlike a few recent films about the Kashmiri Pandit experience, Batt Koch stresses on the importance of balance and cultural preservation over rage and vendetta. Following a theatrical release in March and screenings in American cities, Batt Koch is being shown at the New York Indian Film Festival, which concludes on Sunday. Batt Koch is nominated for Best Debut Feature Film and Best Actor for MK Raina. Apart from Raina, a veteran of the stage and cinema, the cast is entirely Kashmiri, with several Kashmiris in the crew too – a conscious choice for Siddarth Koul and Ankit Wali. The directors were born and raised in Jammu. They have worked extensively in Bollywood. Batt Koch was as emotional an experience for them as it was for the fictional characters, they said. Siddharth Koul thought of the film during the Covid lockdown, after being “deeply moved by the emotional relationship Amitabh Bachchan’s character has with his ancestral home” in Shoojit Sircar’s movie Piku, he