Tag Archives: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan

1st Edition of PickUrFlick Indie Film Festival Ends

1st Edition of PickUrFlick Indie Film Festival ends, promises to come back with diverse global films next year

~“As a filmmaker it is very difficult to make independent films on such issues like insurgency. I have always wanted to bring out things which are not audible. I portrayed this issue in my own visual way. I have always been terrorized by insurgency since childhood. I know families who have been affected by insurgernts. The traumatization has affected the locals so much, that they have muted their voice, they think its okay to have such issues. It has been a history, no one dared to bring this on a public platform, this is journey for me, it has been a difficult process for me to bring in the real story into the mainstream cinema. To bring this sensitive issue, I tried to portray it in a natural way to not face major consequences.” said 64th National Award Winner, Jaicheng Jai Dohutia who also won the best director award for Haanduk at PIFF 2017~

~Anirban Guha and his wife Sinjini Sengupta, wins the best screenplay award for Bengali film Elixir~
Continue reading “1st Edition of PickUrFlick Indie Film Festival Ends”

PickUrFlick Indie Film Festival’s First Delhi Edition To Begin From 19th May

The first edition of PickUrFlick Indie Film Festival founded by Abhishek Sinha will be held at Instituto Cervantes, New Delhi from 19th to 21st May, 2017. The opening ceremony will be inaugurated by the Mr. Carlos Varona Narvion (Director, Instituto Cervantes). 

This edition will screen 70 films over 4 categories in more than 10 languages. 52 shorts, 7 features, 8 Animations and 3 documentaries spread over 23 Spanish films, 14 Silent Films, 7 Hindi Films, 4 Bengali Films, Assamese, Nepali, Persian, German, Arabic, French, Russian and Kurdish film. The Spotlight Country for this edition is Spain with a special focus on Spanish/Latin American films.

Continue reading “PickUrFlick Indie Film Festival’s First Delhi Edition To Begin From 19th May”

Sexy Durga: Trailer

sexy-durga-poster-2Sanal Kumar Sasidharan who has made Malayalam films like Oraalppokkam (2014) and Ozhivudivasathe Kali (2016), both of which have fetched Kerala State Awards is now in the news for his 3rd film, Sexy Durga. Winner of the Hivos Tiger Award at the prestigious International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) this year as well as the DI Award at the NFDC Film Bazaar, 2016. A thriller reflecting the chilling darkness in the society, the film was made without any screenplay and shot at night in Kerala.Featuring Rajshri Deshpande (earlier seen in Angry Indian Goddesses) in the lead, the film is produced by Aruna Mathew and Shaji Mathew. The music is by Basil C.J, while Prathap Joseph is the DOP and editing is by Sanal himself. Continue reading “Sexy Durga: Trailer”

The Best of Malayalam Cinema in 2016: A Perspective

2016 has turned out to be a slightly low key year for Malayalam Cinema overall, with strangely a decrease in the output, both in terms of quantity and quality. Talking of the number of releases there has been a sharp decline in terms of both straight as well as dubbed releases. From 153 releases overall last year (140 straight and 13 dubbed), 2016 saw the release count drop to 122 overall (118 straight releases and 4 dubbed films). And sadly the culmination of the year has ended on a really sad note for the industry, a pity considering the kind of promising films which were lined up for release in the Christmas-New Year festive season.  What started off as a tussle between the producers and distributors/exhibitors over revenue sharing and was expected to get resolved well before the Christmas weekend has extended into a huge deadlock of sorts. As a result all the major festival releases continue to wait for a release and will now in all certainty turn out to be the first few releases of 2017.Continue reading “The Best of Malayalam Cinema in 2016: A Perspective”

Ozhivudivasathe Kali Movie Review: An Outing with Friends Which Turns into a Social Commentary

What do you do on a holiday especially when there’s nothing really to be done at home? What if you had the company of friends who suggest that you join them on an outing, just to chill and unwind over drinks? And imagine that either your people at home are not around or they are totally fine with you going out and having a good time with your friends? Added to it being the fact that these are friends with whom you really connect a lot, with whom anything under the sun can be discussed. Most of us I’m sure would be happy to go along, in the process getting nostalgic at times and discussing things of the past. At times discussing even things totally irrelevant as well, not that you mind anything after all you are in the company of people you are comfortable with, right?Continue reading “Ozhivudivasathe Kali Movie Review: An Outing with Friends Which Turns into a Social Commentary”