The award winning Malayalam film Ozhivu Divasathe Kali (An Off-day Game) is coming to Chennai this Friday. The screening is being organized by producer-filmmaker-entrepreneur Sruthi Harihara Subramaniam, in association with Sathyam Cinemas.
Ozhivu Divasathe Kali is about four friends from different strata of society, getting together in a secret hide-out on an off-day just to have some fun. The film, written by writer Unni R, strongly takes on the caste and class system.
This crowd-funded movie is the second directorial venture of self-taught filmmaker Sanal Kumar Sasidharan. It has won the Kerala state award for the Best Feature Film in 2015. It was released in theatres in Kerala on 17 June by director-producer Aashiq Abu. The film had a highly positive response from the audience and critics alike, and now, has entered the fourth week of its theatrical run.
Sruthi Harihara and her husband and filmmaker Ashwin Rajagopalan run the cafe-art gallery chain ‘Ashvita’ in Chennai. The couple also runs The Cinema Resource Centre, a digital archive of Tamil cinema. Shruti is also the director of A Far Afternoon, a national award-winning documentary.
“Sruthi and Ashwin are my friends. I really appreciate their commitment to making and supporting good independent films,” said Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, in a conversation with Silverscreen.
“Through our Cinema Resource Centre, we have always tried to bring different kinds of cinema to film enthusiasts in Chennai. Basically to tell people that beyond mainstream cinema, there are other kinds of cinema,” Shruti told us.
This is an experimental venture, said Sruthi. “I wanted to know how a film like this will fare in the market, without the backing of a big banner or a big star. If it succeeds, it will encourage others, independent filmmakers, and producers, to make/produce/distribute such small films. I watched Ozhivu Divasathe Kali at various film festivals last year, where I had gone with my documentary. It’s an understatement to say that I was bowled over by the audacity of the film,” she said. “Being a filmmaker myself, I know how hard it was for Sanal to make a movie and take it to the market.”
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Although it had a big name such as Aashiq Abu backing it in Kerala, it doesn’t have any such support in Chennai. “Unfortunately in Chennai, we didn’t have the time to promote the film in a big way. We didn’t get the time to rope in a star,” says Sruthi. “A big name will give more visibility to small movies. People like Dhanush and Aashiq Abu have certain standards for their work. When they promote these movies, it gives it credibility. I think different kinds of filmmakers should get together and make room for growth of the industry,” she said.
“It’s a very dialogue-based movie. It has lengthy continuous dialogues. But that’s not just what a cinema is about. I hope language constraints wouldn’t stop people from other states to watch the movie,” adds Sanal.
Featured Image Courtesy: manoramaonline.com