Directing

Jatinder Mauhar

Jatinder Mauhar is an Indian Punjabi filmmaker, screenwriter, researcher and columnist known for socially conscious films rooted in Punjab. He began his career directing music videos before moving into feature filmmaking. His directorial debut was Mitti (2010), followed by Sikander (2013), Qissa Panjab (2015), Saade Aale (2022) and Maurh (2023). Mauhar's cinema frequently explores political power, social inequality, youth, corruption and the realities of contemporary Punjab. His approach has deliberately moved away from conventional Punjabi commercial cinema toward stories dealing with social and political issues. He trained in film direction at the Zee Institute of Media Arts in Mumbai after initially studying knitting technology and working in the textile industry. He has also worked as a researcher on a BBC documentary about the Samjhauta Express and has written extensively on Indian and world cinema. In 2022, Mauhar made his acting debut as Modan in Gurvinder Singh's Adh Chanani Raat, adapted from Gurdial Singh's novel. His later work includes Maurh (2023), a historical Punjabi drama about Jeona and Kishna Maurh, for which he served as director and writer. Known for: Mitti, Sikander, Qissa Panjab, Saade Aale, Maurh.

Acting credits

After 15 years in prison, for committing a murder to save his father’s honour, Modan returns to his village in Punjab. In his absence, the village’s power structure has shifted towards a landowner, to the detriment of his family. Worse still: his brother is the landowner’s lapdog.

Crescent Night

2022

Behind the camera

Set against a community backdrop, events unfold around personal conflict and shifting relationships. As tensions rise, individuals are forced to confront difficult choices. The outcome is shaped by loyalty, pressure, and consequence.

Jawaak

2026

4.0

The Plot of the movie runs around two Athlete Brothers who fall in the fastidious and lethal labyrinth of society. This movie justifies "Kingsman knows no kingship. Directed by Jatinder Mauhar and having great artists like Deep Sidhu, Guggu Gill, the movie perfectly depicts personal loss and demons within them.

Saade Aale

2022

Sikander is a story of contemporary Punjabi youth. The Punjabi youth is being dubbed as drug addict, turbulent and quarrelsome. This film is an insider’s narrative, representing the corrupt practices and cruel politics in educational institutions which degrade these institutions. It is also making poisonous impact on the society as a whole. Living in this vicious atmosphere the characters of this film are not aloof of its evils. They are part and parcel of the ambience around. The youth is advancing to indulge in organized crime. The political structures as well as socioeconomic conditions are responsible for such violent degeneration. Despite the dominantare drug addicts, turbulent and quarrelsome but they understand life very well. Rather they are very close to life.

Sikander

2013

5.8

In the 1800s in colonial-era Punjab, Jeona Maurh takes up arms to avenge his bandit brother's death. He gradually takes on the land tax mafia working in cahoots with the native kings and the British.

Maurh

2023

The movie mainly revolves around four characters with the protagonist being farmer Jeet Brar, who is also a `kisaan` leader. The four youngsters get involved with a corrupt politician Sardar Harmail Singh and get involved in crime and violence. They have no goals of their own. There is a love tringle introduced with two of the men and Neeru, the daughter of an NRI, who is forbidden from meeting the group by her father. A virtuous journalist called Sarabjit is on Harmail Singh`s trail, as he wants to expose the truth to the people of the state. What happens when he persists? Will love beat crime?

Mitti

2009