The night we drove from New Jersey to New York to watch The Cycle of Love, there was a flood warning. Roads were waterlogged, there were blocks and diversions, we took wrong turns—we even landed up at the wrong theater where another screening of the same film was taking place!
By the time I finally made it to the DGA Theater, soaked, carrying my heels in my hands because I was terrified of slipping, I felt like a warrior!
Mission accomplished. Against all odds, I had made it!
And then…I watched P.K. Mahanandia’s story.
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And suddenly my journey from New Jersey to Manhattan seemed rather ridiculous.
Because almost fifty years ago, this man set out from India on a second-hand bicycle, with a few belongings, his paintbrushes and an almost impossible dream—to reach the woman he loved, 6,000 miles away in Sweden.
P.K. was born into a poor Dalit family, into a society where being considered an “untouchable” meant experiencing discrimination and humiliation simply because of the caste into which he was born.
He became an artist in Delhi, drawing portraits to survive. And that’s where he met Lotta von Schedvin, a young Swedish traveler who sat down for a portrait—and somehow became the woman who would change his life.
When Lotta eventually returned to Sweden, P.K. couldn’t afford an airline ticket.
So he got on a bicycle.
Think about that.
This was 1977. No Google Maps. No smartphone. No WhatsApp location. No credit card booking you another hotel when something went wrong.
He encountered borders and bureaucracy, changing terrain and brutal weather. There were days of hunger and sickness. He survived largely through his art and the kindness of complete strangers.
And there comes a point in the film when the optimism we have come to associate with P.K. almost disappears. His body and spirit are exhausted. He seems ready to surrender to the possibility that he may simply die there.
And yet…he continues.
The film is about love, certainly. But it’s also about dignity. Caste. Self-belief. Destiny. Human kindness. And one man’s refusal to accept the boundaries that birth, money, geography and society had drawn around his life.
And perhaps the most beautiful question the film leaves us with is: Was this destiny—or was it P.K.’s extraordinary courage that turned destiny into reality?
Director Orlando von Einsiedel — the Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind The White Helmets — tells this story with remarkable simplicity.
The documentary moves almost seamlessly between the real P.K. and Lotta today and recreations of their younger selves, played beautifully by Chirag Lobo and Mina Dale.
But here’s where the filmmaking gets particularly interesting.
Many of the encounters along P.K.’s recreated journey weren’t conventional scripted scenes. Chirag was placed in situations with real people along the route, with conversations unfolding through improvisation rather than traditional scripted dialogue.
And perhaps that’s why those moments have such innocence.
You see P.K. sketching ordinary people, talking to villagers and connecting with strangers—and gradually you understand that while he may have been travelling alone, his journey was sustained by humanity.
The film is produced by Grain Media and Kalabati Pictures in association with Purple Pebble Pictures and other partners, with Priyanka Chopra Jonas serving as one of its executive producers.
And at the New York premiere, there was something rather special about seeing the real P.K. and Lotta in that packed theater, watching an audience react to a love story they actually lived.
The simplicity of The Cycle of Love is its greatest strength.
It doesn’t need manufactured drama.
The truth is dramatic enough.
It makes you laugh. It makes you emotional. And despite knowing that P.K. and Lotta are sitting right there telling us this story decades later, somehow you still find yourself rooting for that young man on the bicycle:
Just a little farther, P.K.
Don’t give up.
Reach her.
And maybe that’s why this story feels particularly meaningful today.
We live in an age of instant connection—instant messages, instant attraction, swipe right, swipe left—and sometimes equally instant endings.
Love doesn’t always get the time to brew anymore.
I’m certainly not suggesting anyone should cycle 6,000 miles to prove they love somebody!
But perhaps P.K. and Lotta remind us of something we risk forgetting:
Some relationships are worth patience.
Some people are worth effort.
And love isn’t only something you feel.
Sometimes it’s something you choose—again and again—especially when getting to the other side isn’t easy.
Nearly fifty years later, P.K. and Lotta are still together.
Maybe that is the real finish line.
The Cycle of Love opened in U.S. theaters on August 28, 2026. It is directed by Orlando von Einsiedel and features P.K. Mahanandia and Lotta von Schedvin, with Chirag Lobo and Mina Dale portraying their younger selves.