Filmmaker and artist Prashant Bhargava dies at 42

Prashant Bhargava, a deeply humane filmmaker and artist perhaps best known for the 2011 film “Patang” (“The Kite”), has died of cardiac arrest in New York. He was 42.

His sister Anurima Bhargava confirmed his death to the Associated Press on Tuesday. She said he died Friday.

A native of the South Side of Chicago, Bhargava studied computer science at Cornell University and worked in music videos and commercials for most of his career, creating promotional spots for HBO shows such as “The Wire,” ’’Oz” and “Rome.”

“Patang,” Bhargava’s only narrative feature, followed six stories in Ahmedabad, India, during the country’s largest kite festival, set amid a community reeling from a natural disaster and churning with religious conflict.

It premiered at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival. In his four star review of “Patang,” the late film critic Roger Ebert called it joyous and lovely.

A biography on Bhargava’s website notes that he was “one of the first South Asians worldwide to emerge from the hip-hop movement as a graffiti artist.”