Mahesh Narayanan said it was an additional honor for a film like Take Off to be selected at the Indian Panorama section. Photo: G. RageshPanaji: The situation that stops a film from being screened at a film festival despite its selection by the jury is frightening, Malayalam filmmaker Mahesh Narayanan said here on Sunday.
Narayanan, who was here for the screening of his film Take Off as part of the Indian Panorama section of the ongoing IFFI, said parallel films need to get more support from film festivals like IFFI. He was reacting to a question on the I&B ministry dropping Sanal Kumar Sasidharan's S Durga from the Indian Panorama section.
"The jury has the discretion to select films. And if a film cannot be screened even after jury selects it, it's painful for any filmmaker," he said.
Voicing concern over the threat to freedom of expression, Narayanan said there's no need to fear a film.
"At a time when even the idea of censorship is being questioned, there's no need to fear a film. It needs to be viewed as an artist's creative expression," he said on the sidelines of the IFFI.
He said it was an additional honor for a film like Take Off to be selected at the Indian Panorama section.
"This is a film made in the mainstream category. It's an additional honor for us to be selected here," he said.
He said it was saddening to see that only one Malayalam film could make it to the Indian Panorama.
"IFFI always has a large participation of delegates from Kerala. It's saddening to see the less number of films selected here," he said.
Take Off is being screened at the IFFI in the competition section. The film has also been included in the Malayalam Cinema Today category of the IFFK, to be held next month in Thiruvananthapuram.
Apart from Narayanan, screen writer P V Shajikumar and art director Santosh Raman also attended the screening.
The film, featuring Parvathy, Fahadh Faasil and Kunchacko Boban in the lead roles, had received rave reviews from all sorts of audience.
