Vanaprastham (1999)

Original title

വാനപ്രസ്ഥം

Directed by

Shaji N. Karun

Genre

drama film

Country

India, Germany

Runtime

1h 59m

Rated

13

Rating

7.8 of 10 from 20 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A Kathakali dancer struggles with his art and identity in late 20th century Kerala. The film follows his personal and professional challenges as a performer.

slow-burnmelancholiccontemplativevisually lushpoignantintrospectiveserious

What happens

Vanaprastham: The Last Dance (French: Vanaprastham: La Dernière Danse) is a 1999 Malayalam psychological drama period film by Shaji N. Karun. It was produced as an Indo-French collaboration by Pierre Assouline, and co-produced by Mohanlal. The screenplay was written by Karun and Raghunath Paleri (who also wrote the dialogues) based on a story by Assouline. It features Mohanlal in the lead role, with Suhasini Maniratnam, Mattannur Sankarankutty Marar, Kalamandalam Gopi, Venmani Haridas, and Cuckoo Parameswaran in supporting roles. The film's music was composed by Zakir Hussain. The film premiered at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 1999, where it was selected in the Un Certain Regard section, and was theatrically released in France on 13 October 1999 and in India in January 2000. The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the American Film Institute's 1999 AFI Fest (Los Angeles International Film Festival). It won the Special Prize of the Jury at the Istanbul International Film Festival and the FIPRESCI prize at the Mumbai International Film Festival. The film won three awards at the 47th National Film Awards —Best Feature Film, Best Actor (Mohanlal), and Best Editing (A. Sreekar Prasad), and six awards at the 1999 Kerala State Film Awards, including Best Director and Best Actor (Mohanlal). In 2014, Vanaprastham was screened retrospective at the 45th International Film Festival of India in the Celebrating Dance in Indian cinema section. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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