The Cloud Messenger (Meghdoot), Fahadh Faasil-starrer Malik along with eight other Indian language films have made it to lineup of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2022.
The line-up that was officially announced on Friday, includes four Malayalam films, namely Malik starring Fahadh Faasil and directed by Mahesh Narayan and Chavittu directed by Sajas Rahman and Shinos Rahman in the Harbour program category, Hawk’s Muffin, directed by Krishnendu Kalesh in the Bright Future programme category and The Harbour directed by Rajeev Ravi in the Big Screen Competition category.
The Cloud Messenger (Meghdoot), the Indian film directed by Rahat Mahajan, is among the 14 films that will compete in the flagship Tiger competition of the IFFR 2022. The Tiger competition is IFFR’s trademark competition which “celebrates the innovative and adventurous spirit of up-and-coming filmmakers from all over the world.”. In last year’s edition of the festival, Pebbles (Koozhangal), the Tamil film directed by Vinothraj PS and produced by Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan, became the first Tamil film to win the prestigious Tiger Award.
Besides being the director of his debut feature film, Mahajan has also penned the screenplay for Meghdoot and edited the film along with Bina Paul and also is the cinematographer, and production designer for the film. The film is inspired by his own boarding school experiences. Starring Ritvik Tyagi, Ahalya Shetty, Raj Zutshi, Kapila Venu, Rajeevan Peesappilly, Lalita Shivani, Sadanand Bhasi, among others, Meghdoot comes in three languages- Sanskrit, Malayalam and English.
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Adh Chanani Raat (Crescent Night), a Punjabi language film directed by National award-winning filmmaker Gurvinder Singh, will have its world premiere at the IFFR 2022. Urf, a feature film on celebrity lookalikes directed by Geetika Narang Abbasi will also have its world premiere in the IFFR 2022 under the Cinema Regained section. The 1973 Hindi classic Duvidha directed by Mani Kaul will also be screened in this section.
In the Short & Mid Length category, Bengali film Madhu directed by Tanmay Chowdhury and Tanvi Chowdhary and the Marathi film Murmurs in the Jungle directed by Sohil Vaidya will be screened.
The IFFR 2022, which was initially taking place physically, later announced that it will be held virtually for the second consecutive year due to the nationwide lockdown restrictions in the Netherlands with the rising cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The festival will take place virtually from January 26 to February 6.The full schedule of the 2022 festival will be announced on January 18 and tickets will be made available for sale from January 21.