Kerala State Award winner Rahul Riji Nair’s latest feature film Kalla Nottam has won the prestigious Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Award.
The award
The award has been given as the film has been selected as the Best Feature Film at the National Competition Section for Indian Language Films in the recently concluded 26th Kolkata International Film Festival.
The award comprises of a cash award of Rs 7 lakh and the coveted Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Trophy.
The festival
Kolkata International Film Festival, founded in 1995, is the third oldest international film festival in India. It is one of major film festivals in the country to be recognised by FIAPF, a nodal organisation in charge of regulating international film festivals. This year’s jury comprised of Philippian Actor Liza Dino, Anne Démy-Geroe (Vice President of NETPAC) and international film critic Alin Tasciyan.
The film
Kalla Nottam narrates the tale of two boys who steal a Camera kept for surveillance in a store aspiring to make a cinema. But their plans go astray and their attempts to abandon the Camera fails. They end up on wrong side of their actions leading to an irrecoverable loss. The film explores the screen life genre which has been rarely explored in Malayalam. The film had earlier won the Best Innovative Film Award at the Indian Film Festival of Cincinnati, USA. Kalla Nottam had also won the Best Child Artist Award for Master Vasudev Sajeesh Marar at last year’s Kerala State Film Awards and Kerala Film Critics’ Awards. The film had its World Premiere at the New York Indian Film Festival and has been a part of numerous prestigious film festivals in Europe and North America.
Kalla Nottam is the third feature film written and directed by Rahul Riji Nair and is produced by Lijo Joseph and Sujith Warrier under the banner of First Print Studios. Other major crew members includes Appu Bhattathiri (Editor), Tobin Thomas (DoP) and Vishnu PC (Sound Mix and Deign). Interestingly the film does not have any Background Score. Other major actors in the film are Vinitha Koshy, Renjit Shekhar Nair, Suryadev Sajeesh Marar and PJ Unnikrishnan.
Rahul is currently working on the post production of his new film Kho-Kho starring Rajisha Vijayan which is slated for a theatre release later this year.
