They are young and rebellious. A fire of youth burns within them. They are the product of a confused culture, stalking their own shadows in search of answers.

Rising Shores is a trail blazing story of youthful hearts yearning to be free......free from what?.....they know not.

The time is now. The backdrop is Los Angeles. The cast is today's Indian youth vis-à-vis the older generation. The subject matter is the conflict of youth caught in the cross currents of their desire to be free and their obligations to family and society.

Hardev Sanwal is the patriarch of a family that symbolizes this conflict. Unable to hold his family together in the face of a culture that opposes values he has stood for, he is chained in the shackles of a deeper, personal grief in his loneliness and separation from his own wife. His own marriage has been a victim of the powers of western thought.

The main protagonists of the story are his children and, at a peripheral level, the friends they deal with. Amit, the oldest, a playboy who finds his emotions being ignited by the sparks of forbidden love with a married woman. Sparks that, fed by jealousy and anger, burst into an uncontrollable conflagration that ends in the death of his lover, Bela. And Amit, who had taken pride in his invincibility and his sexual prowess, finds himself facing a charge of murder.

Vick, the younger son, typical of youth that has had everything handed to them on a silver platter. Lacking ambition, unable to live up to the image of the successful, sauve, charming older brother, he resorts to gang activity. But the likes of him and his friends are too immature and uncouth in the face of the extremely polished establishment headed by Mukti Karan. The passion of youth is quelled under the sophisticated, scheming minds of Mukti Karan and his gang.

Sharon, the younger daughter, is fighting to assert her own independence. She befriends Rekha, who has cast aside the mantle of Indian values in her indulgence of sexual freedom, and takes the first step towards her own 'self-discovery.'

Standing solid behind this dysfunctional family is a wall of centuries-old values that enforce themselves through the eminent presence of Hardev and the quiet strength of Taaro, the aunt from India. Values that are inherent in the children are drawn forth through gentle reinforcements within the home and personal suffering without.

The speed of action, the thrill of mystery, the passion of emotion--these are the panorama against which each character discovers his/her own self. This film offers a story that grips you, a drama that speaks directly to you and your experiences.

A tale of expectations, of rebellion towards shackles of tradition and the ultimate rise of the human spirit to meet challenges posed by life in an alien culture RISING SHORES promises drama, humor, pathos and above all the sublime beauty of youth achieving its salvation through positive and meaningful action.