“It is also important to discuss how to make films at a time when films are arbitrarily banned”;-Abhilash Omana Sreedharan

News Desk

31 August 2022 11:00 AM

Abhilash Sreedharan, the director of the Malayalam Short fiction film, Kowpina Shasthram opinionated

that in these times of political and religious propaganda, such open discourses are only limited in a

progressive society and that it is also important to discuss how to make films at a time when they are

banned and boycotted. He was speaking at the meet the director program in the film festival venue of

IDSFFK.

Arafat Baktoo, a young filmmaker from Kashmir and the director of Attraction also shared his

experiences and the stories that prompted him to create his film. He also said that rather than someone

outside narrating the stories in Kashmir, let them say their own stories.

The session hosted ten young short fiction filmmakers from both Malayalam and Hindi, including Ishan

Sharma (A Season of Mangoes), Joyal Koovalloor (Kero Scene), Alok Kumar Dwivedi (Hurdang), Shijith

Kalyadan (Irachikothi), Nischhal Sharma (RIMI), Nishanth Gurumurthy (GOPI).

Nischhal Sharma, the director of RIMI also asserted that her film does not attempt to stereotype gender

roles, rather she deliberately chooses the notion of sisterhood which can help liberate women other

than giving that responsibility to a man.

With film lovers, critical viewers, and young film passionate minds, the session was immensely engaging.

Various subjects like the form of narration, discourses around stereotyping gender, politics of images

and the challenges against censorship, especially for those filmmakers from conflict zones like Kashmir

became some of the intense takeaways from the session.