Tuesday, December 04, 2007

"Was this film funded by ISI?"

That was what one TV journalist asked to P T Kunhi Mohammed, the director of Malayalam film `Paradesi' at a meet the press program organized in connection with a screening of the film.

Could be he was trying to act smart, or just being stupid. But it kind of explains the film's absence from Indian Panorama at Goa festival.

(Paradesi illustrates the fate of the partition's in-betweens who face continuous torture from both Paki and Indian states. Escorting the guys all the way to the border and leaving them in No Man's land and all.. We have seen many partition films -- recently 1947 Earth and Khamosh Pani -- but this post-partition film set in 2007 is not a repeat of those. I remember newspaper reports about one Pak citizen dying in our district a few years back after running between the countries for decades. As Mohanlal said at the screening, this could happen in any place in the world where there's conflict. . The film has a haunting effect, despite dragging at some places. And some good music.)