By NJ Thakuria
Panaji, Dec 21: Sanskrit feature film, ‘Namo’, directed by Vijeesh Mani and starring Jayaram with others, has been selected for screening in Indian panorama during the 51st International Film Festival of India scheduled from January 16 to 24 in Goa.
Besides the period movie based on the friendship between Lord Krishna and Kuchelan (popularly known as Sudama), 22 other feature films along with 20 non-feature films received entries to the much-admired Indian panorama for the year 2020.
The list of selected movies in the feature films section, announced by the Union Information and Broadcasting (I&B) minister, Prakash Javadekar recently in New Delhi, also include Assamese feature film ‘Bridge’ directed by Kripal Kalita, Manipuri movie ‘Eigi Kona’ by Bobby Wahengbam along with ‘Saand Ki Aankh’ (Hindi) by Tushar Hiranandani, ‘Up Up & Up’ (in English) by Govind Nihalani, ‘Kalira Atita’ (Oriya) by Nila Madhab Panda, ‘Prawaas’ (Marathi) by Shashank Udapurkar, ‘A Dog And His Man’ (Chattisgarhi) by Siddharth Tripathy, etc.
Non-feature films included in the list are ‘Highways Of Life’ (Manipuri) by Maibam Amarjeet Singh, ‘Ahimsa- Gandhi: The Power Of The Powerless’ (English) by Ramesh Sharma, ‘Green Blackberries’ (Nepali) by Prithvirag Das Gupta, ‘Oru Paathiraa Swapnam Pole’ (Malayalam) by Sharan Venugopal, ‘Radha’ (Bengali) by Bimal Poddar, ‘Paanchika’ (Gujarati) by Ankit Kothari, ‘Jhat Aayi Basant’ (Pahari/Hindi) by Pramati Anand, etc.
Namo, which was entirely shot in the Sanskrit language by cinematographer S Lokanathan in various locations including Varanasi, Kanyakumari, etc has music by eminent musician Hariprasad Chaurasia and Bhajan Samraat Anoop Jalota. Produced under the banner Anaswara Charitable Trust, the feature film has editing by B Lenin, screenplay by U Presanna Kumar, art designing by Pramod Monalisa, etc.
Besides Jayaram, who went on a major physical transformation to play the mythological character Sudama, other casts include Anjali, Saniya, Meenakshi, Mythili, etc.
Assamese movie Bridge narrates the story of a struggling woman in rural Assam on the bank of a Brahmaputra tributary reflecting relentless efforts by villagers to rebuild their lives after perennial flood and erosions. Produced by Rama Kumar Das and Sabita Devi under the banner 'Kristipathar', the movie has cinematography by Ramen Rabha, editing by Kishore Deka, sound design and mixing by Amrit Pritam and cast by Shiva Rani Kalita, Partha Protim Bora, Swapnil Nath, Anindita Das, Suren Mahanta, etc.