Malayalam film wins big at New York festival

Filmmaker Anjali Menon's debut feature film Manjadikuru has swept the awards at South Asian International Film Festival at New York, winning five Grand Jury Awards.

Manjadikuru won Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematographer & Best Emerging Talent.

Manjadikuru’s Swiss cinematographer Pietro Zuercher, won Best Cinematographer at SAIFF. Zuercher had earlier done Hindi & Tamil projects with filmmakers like Ram Gopal Varma.

Vyjayanthi, a 14-year-old student from Virudanagar, Tamil Nadu, who has acted in a key role in Manjadikuru, won the Best Emerging Talent award.

Also see: We profile Anjali Menon | Our review of Kerala Cafe

Writer & Director Anjali Menon says: "Manjadikuru is just a simple family story with a Malayalee ethos. I am very happy that it has touched viewers across language and culture boundaries."

Manjadikuru features Prithviraj, Thilakan, Murali, Rahman, Jagathy Sreekumar, Urvashi, Bindu Panickar, Praveena & others. Editing is by B Lenin, music by Ramesh Narayan & lyrics by Kavalam Narayana Panikkar.

The South Asian International Film Festival (SAIFF) is the largest film premiere destination for South Asian/Indian filmmakers in the United States.