Noticias

South Indian actress Revathy will star Miriam Chandy Menacherry’s Homestay Blues, which has been selected for this year’s Co-production Market at Film Bazaar.

Principal photography on the English and Malayalam-language film is expected to start in August 2014. Malayalam-actor Fahadh Faasil (Annayum Rasoolum) had already boarded the project.

Produced by Menacherry’s Filament Pictures and Mumbai-based Vedartha Entertainment, Homestay Blues revolves around a prodigal son who returns to his ancestral house in Kerala after a string of failures abroad. He decides to ride the tourism boom and convert the family mansion into a homestay for foreigners.

Menacherry earlier directed the documentary The Rat Race which was selected for more than a dozen international film festivals including International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (Idfa) in 2011.

H omestay Blues is one of the twenty-three films selected for the co- production market of Film Bazaar 2013. We spoke to the director Miriam Chandy Menacherry:

Miriam Chandy Menacherry

Tell us about your project. What language will it be in?

Homestay Blues is about a prodigal son who returns to his ancestral home in Kerala, after leaving home to study abroad, where he abandoned his studies to join a blues band. A string of failures behind him, he now returns at age 32, a stranger in his homeland. Much has changed in the time that Johnny has been away and he has to come to terms with his crumbling home and a new era of communist politics. Johnny decides to ride the tourism boom and convert the family mansion into a home stay for foreigners- it his last shot at love and a second shot at life.

The paths of...

While funding and distribution in India still remain a herculean challenge, 2012 seems to have slightly bettered the prospects for Indian documentaries. At par with their fiction film cousins, they not only made waves at international film festivals but a few of them also achieved limited release in domestic theatres. DearCinema lists the top ten favourite documentaries of the year (based on festival participation, awards and reviews):

Celluloid Man

With Celluloid Man, India finally saw a documentary on the life and work of the man who built its National Film Archive reel by reel. The film was so insightful and evocative that it not only got P.K Nair due recognition at home, but also won hearts at numerous festivals abroad. Directed by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Celluloid Man was screened at International film festival of India (Iffi), International film festival of Kerala (Iffk), Mumbai, Telluride and Il Cinema Ritrovato film festivals.

Miriam Chandy Menacherry’s The Rat Race won the award for best documentary, Vikram Dasgupta’s Calcutta Taxi was awarded the best short and Bedabrata Pain’s feature Chittagong bagged two awards- The Jury Award and the Piaggio Foundation Award at the 12th River to River Indian Film Festival in Florence, Italy.

The Rat Race is based on the night lives of Mumbai municipal corporation’s rat killing department. The film was screened at the 14th Mumbai International Film Festival.

Debutant Vikram Dasgupta’s Calcutta Taxi, a Canada – India co-production, is set in the backdrop of the political crisis of Calcutta. The film revolves around three lives that coincide and affect each other in a way that each one gains and loses something. The film will compete in the 35th International Short Film Festival of Clermont-Ferrand.

Bedabrata Pain’s Chittagong that won two awards, is set in the turbulence of the 1930s British India.

Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur I will open the 12th edition of the River to River Florence Indian Film Festival, while its sequel Gangs of Wasseypur II will be the closing film of the festival. A documentary on the life and career of Amitabh Bachchan, Everlasting Light by Ram Madhvani, will be screened during the festival. Bachchan will also be present for a Q&A session post the screening of his film Black.

Besides film screening, the festival will also host interactive sessions on topics like, ‘Shakti: Women in Indian cinema and literature’ and ‘Bollywood and the expression of emotions in today’s India’.

The festival will run from 7th to 13th December in Florence followed by an edition in Rome from 14th to 16th December 2012.

The films in the 2012 line up are:

Much Ado About Knotting

Dir.: Geetika Narang Abbasi and Anandana Kapur

Bharatmata Ki Jai (Long live Bharatmata)

Dir.

Miriam Chandy Menacherry’s documentary on Mumbai’s night rat killers to release theatrically on April 20

The Rat Race, a film that reveals an intriguing facet of Mumbai, is going to hit city theatres soon. Yet another film about the city, some might wonder.

The Rat Race is special for two reasons. First, it is a sensitive as well as funny portrayal of a workforce that remains unacknowledged yet integral to life in the city. It is about a community that springs into action when the city goes deep in slumber–the pied pipers of Mumbai.

Besides, it is the second documentary in recent time after Jaideep Varma’s Leaving Home in 2010 to make its way to the big screen.

The release of Miriam Chandy Menacherry’s The Rat Race was facilitated by a unique initiative called ‘The Trigger Pitch’ which was held for the first time in December 2011 along...