Movies

A still from the short film Manavalan in Trouble made by the employees of UST in Thiruvananthapuram | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT Arun Mohan, a young, successful filmmaker at a village in Kannur. News spreads that Prithviraj, the hero of his last two blockbuster films, would be attending the wedding function. The village folk, his relatives, the bride’s friends and family are thrilled by the news. So, by the time Arun gets a message from Prithviraj that he might not make it for the function, preparations to welcome the actor have gone overboard. The incidents that follow are captured with…

Stills from ‘Takopi’s Original Sin’ and ‘April’ | Photo Credit: Crunchyroll, MUBI Whether you’re an old hand at arthouse or just dipping a toe into the rising otaku subculture of anime aficionados around the world, this column lists curated titles that challenge, comfort, and occasionally combust your expectations.This week’s picks for Ctrl+Alt+Cinema couldn’t be more different on the surface — one’s a six-episode anime about a pink alien octopus trying to spread joy, the other is a stark Georgian drama about a rural doctor under scrutiny for her role in a botched delivery — but both are crushing portraits of…

Unnikrishnan Avala has been nothing less than a spokesperson for the tribal population, be it through his documentary The Last Page, his book Vipareetham or his feature film directorial debut, Udalaazham. The writer-filmmaker’s latest work, Thanthapperu — Life of a Phallus, breaks new ground – it features the Cholanaikan community, Asia’s only cave-dwellers, with over a dozen members acting in the film. The movie is in their language, a unique blend of Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu.This indigenous group lives in Karimpuzha sanctuary in different caves, some 45 kilometres from Nilambur in Malappuram district. “Less than 200 members are in the tribe…

Shafeeq Mustafa as Sivarasan in ‘The Hunt’  | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT Actor Shafeeq Mustafa is a revelation in the Nagesh Kukunoor web series The Hunt —The  Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case. As the mercurial Sivarasan, the mastermind behind the 1991 assassination of the former prime minister, Shafeeq impresses in his breakout role. The Kochi-based actor is visibly happy over the outcome and the feedback coming his way from industry peers. For the 35 year-old self-taught actor who hails from Shoranur, the role was way beyond his wildest dreams. It came via a friend who told him about a production house that…

“Oon mera naam hai, oon oon oon; meri kahani zara sun sun sun.” (My name in Oon, oon oon oon; listen to my story.) A tuft of raw, tangled black Deccani wool with tiny arms and a hole for a mouth bounces across the screen, narrating the story of neglect that desi oon has suffered for generations. The six-minute stop-motion animation film, Desi Oon, tells a riveting tale of how indigenous wool stands forgotten. Its compelling storytelling — depicting the intersection of ecology, dwindling traditional craft, and the threat industrialisation poses to pastoral communities — scooped up the Jury Award…

When Moonwalk released in theatres, the most emotional of the film’s crew at the first day, first show, was Sreejith P, the choreographer of the movie. “Even though I had watched the final product, sitting there with the audience reminded me of the hard work and struggle that went into making it. I could not hold back my tears,” says the 53-year-old, also known as Sreejith P Dazzlers, as he runs the dance studio, Dazzlers, in Kochi.The film, he says, is special for him on many counts. Directed by ad filmmaker Vinod AK, it tells the stories of a few…