Search Results for: Pebbles

Vinothraj PS Interview: We Knew ‘Pebbles’ Would Win Something

BY Aswathy Gopalakrishnan On

Madurai-based filmmaker Vinothraj PS’s debut film, Pebbles (Koozhangal), won the Tiger Competition Award at the 50th International Film Festival of Rotterdam last week, becoming the second Indian film and the first Tamil film to win the coveted honour.He would run into a film crew almost every day in Madurai, a popular shooting location for the mainstream Tamil movies. “I had butterflies in my stomach when I saw a cinematographer on a crane for the first time.

Pebbles Review: PS Vinothraj’s Film is a Marvellous Portrait of a Landscape and Its People

BY Aswathy Gopalakrishnan On

One of the few instances where modernity makes an appearance in PS Vinothraj’s debut film Pebbles is when a little boy stops to gaze at an aeroplane ﹣ a pale white speck in the blazing sky ﹣while running away from his furious father.Vinothraj’s film is a little bit of everything ﹣ a comedy, a road-movie, a drama about a dysfunctional family ﹣and at the same time, none of these but a collection of photographs that tell the story of a landscape.

Anger and its many seasons in Koozhangal’s Arittapatti

BY Sanjana Ganesh On

Director Vinothraj says that the landscape is central to these loud moods. “On the hottest days, do we also not become Ganapathy? ” he asks as he recounts times when he and the members of his crew sat in different parts of the hills at different points of shoot because they just could not manage their anger. “The wind that reaches the mountains reflects a veppa kaathu (hot air).

2021’s Notable Debut Directors: First-Time Indian Filmmakers Who Explored New Storylines and Made a Mark

BY Anusha Sundar On

Starring Satya Dev, Nithya Menen and Rahul Ramakrishna, it is a period comedy-drama set in a village in Telangana against the backdrop of the Skylab incident.   Silverscreen India’s Sankeertana called the film “well-made” in her review and added that it “celebrates stories, big and small. ” On the filmmaker’s writing, she said, “The way Vishwak writes his characters reminded me of Jhandyala; how most of his characters are caricatures, yet fully-realised human beings.

Best Tamil Films of 2021: Boxing Rings, Time Loops and Social Justice

BY Anusha Sundar On

Silverscreen India termed this hour-long film “short in length, long in depth. ” Starring actor Vijay Sethupathi, his daughter Sreeja Vijay Sethupathi and actor Regina Cassandra, it is helmed by debutant filmmaker Karthik S and revolves around a family and the dog that they adopt.In an earlier conversation with Silverscreen India, Ashwin said that the film first took form as a seven-minute short called Ward Enn 325 in 2011 before he decided to explore it further as a feature. “Films don’t create revolution, but they are thought-inducing,” the filmmaker added.

‘Koozhangal’ is India’s Official Entry to the 2022 Oscars

BY Silverscreen India Staff On

Tamil film Koozhangal (Pebbles) directed by Vinothraj PS, is India’s official entry to the 2022 Oscars. 
If Koozhangal finds a place on the nomination list, it will represent India in the Best International Feature Film category at the Academy Awards next year.
A 15-member panel of the Film Federation of India, headed by filmmaker Shaji N Karun as the chairman of the jury, selected Koozhangal from among 14 shortlisted films. Mandela, Nayattu, Sherni and Sardar Udham were among the other films in the shortlist.
Produced by Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan under the Rowdy Pictures banner, Koozhangal, is directed by debutant Vinothraj, a Madurai-based filmmaker.  
Making the announcement, Vignesh Shivan tweeted on Saturday “There’s a chance to hear this! “And the Oscars goes to …. “ Two steps away from a dream come true moment in our lives.”
As per the official synopsis of the film, in Koozhangal, “An alcoholic wife beater embarks on a journey, dragging his young son along to fetch back his wife whom he had chased away.”
Silverscreen India’s review of the film called it “part of a new wave happening on the peripheries of Tamil cinema where young filmmakers with little or no experience in filmmaking are coming up with stunning experiments in cinema.”
In February this year, Koozhangal also became the first Tamil film to win the prestigious Tiger Award at the 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).  
Speaking to Silverscreen India after the win, Vinothraj said “Everyone who had watched the film at the festival had liked it. We knew we were going to win something.” 
“Film festivals are important. But I want the film to be seen by my people. It is about them, for them,” he added. 
The Academy Awards are scheduled to be held in March, 2022. Other films selected to represent India at the Oscars in the past include Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Jallikattu and Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy. Both films failed to find a place on the nomination list. In the 2021 Academy Awards, Danish film Another Round won in the Best International Feature Film category.

Parambrata Chatterjee-Directed Soumitra Chatterjee-Starrer ‘Abhijaan’ among 4 Bengali-Made Films To Be Showcased at the London Indian Film Festival 2021

BY Namrata Ganguly On

Four Bengali-made films — actor-director Parambrata Chatterjee’s Abhijaan, starring late Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee; filmmaker Suman Ghosh’s Searching for Happiness; the documentary Swimming Through the Darkness by Supriyo Sen; and stage and film director Suman Mukhopadhyay’s first Hindi film Nazarband — are being showcased at the London Indian Film Festival 2021.

Reality Check: Premkumar Chandran On The Tale That Sparked The Hit Comedy ‘Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom’

BY Sinndhuja Ramprasad On

After essaying the lead role in Thenmaerku Paruva Kaatru in 2011, Sethupathi’s 2012 movies also included Karthik Subbaraj’s Pizza – yet another low budget film that was received well. “He was well-built and muscular then” says Premkumar, “so he had to lose a few pounds to play me. ” The actor, Premkumar declares, was spontaneous, breezily, organically working in some of his mannerisms into the character. “I would pet almost every stray dog on the road, randomly practice bowling with pebbles on the road… he’d weaved all of that into Prem that you’d seen on screen.