THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Manhole directed by debutant Vidhu Vincent and Kaadu Pookkunna Neram by Dr Biju has been chosen as the Malayalam entries into the competition section of the 21st International Film Festival of Kerala. IFFK will be held here from December 9 to 16. Bengali film Chitrokar (The Last Mural) directed by Saibal Mitra and Assamese film Midnight Keteki directed by Santwana Bardoloi are the two Indian films in Competition. The remaining 10 films of the competition section will be picked from international entries.
There will be seven Malayalam films in the Malayalam Cinema category and another seven films from other Indian languages in the Indian Cinema Category. The Malayalam films are: Aaradi (Saji Palamel Sreedharan); Godsay (Sherrey Govindan/Shyju Govind); KaBodyscapes (Jayan Cherian); Kammatipaadam (Rajeev Ravi); Kismath (Shanavas Bavakutty); Mohavalayam (T. V. Chandran); Veeram: Macbeth (Jayaraj R). The grant for the nine Malayalam films, to the Competition and Malayalam Cinema Today sections, has been increased from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh.
The films selected to the Indian Cinema Now section are: Bhaapaa Ki Bhayakatha (Paresh Mokashi/Hindi); Chronicles of Hari/ Harikatha Prasanga (AnanyaKasaravalli/Kannada); Lady of the Lake (Dir: Paban Kumar Haobam/Manipuri); Onaatah (PradipKurbah/Khaasi); Revelations (Vijay Jayapal/Tamil); Turtle/Kaasav (SunilSukthankar/Sumitra Bhave/Marathi); Western Ghats/Merku Thodarchi Malai (Lenin Bharathi/Tamil). Malayalam film jury comprised of Sekhar Das, Leena Manimekalai, Latika Padgoankar, G.P. Ramachandran, and Damodar Prasad. The jury that picked the Indian films included K.R. Mohanan, Madhupal, Fow zia Fathima, K. Manojkumar and Rajiv Vijayaraghavan.
