Hugely, tremendously, humungously happy: that is how PS Vinothraj reacted to his Tamil movie Koozhangal (Pebbles) being chosen as the Ind...
Hugely, tremendously, humungously happy: that is how PS Vinothraj reacted to his Tamil movie Koozhangal (Pebbles) being chosen as the Indian entry for the international feature film category at the Oscars.
The 31-year-old filmmaker spent much of Saturday accepting congratulatory messages and giving interviews. “All our team members are elated, we didn’t expect this at all,” he told Scroll.in. “Everybody has been very supportive. The Oscar nomination makes us hope that we can work hard and achieve something.”
Vinothraj’s debut feature has already stacked up acclaim, winning the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s top honour, The Tiger Award, earlier this year. Koozhangal is only the second Indian film after Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s S Durga to be given this honour.
The minimalist and powerful narrative follows a father-and-son duo over half a day. Ganapathy (Karuththadaiyaan) and Velu (Chella Pandi) travel to the house of Ganapathy’s estranged wife to bring her back home. Apart from following the equation between the aggressive and inebriated Ganapathy and the preternaturally wise Velu, the movie explores the harsh terrain, grinding poverty and lack of water that surrounds the characters.
Vinothraj based the movie on his sister’s experience, he had previously told Scroll.in after winning the Rotterdam award. His sister had been thrown out of her house by her husband and trekked 13 kilometres to...