Underplayed Gems

Manhole (2016)

Manhole poster
Original title
മാന്‍ഹോള്‍
Directed by
Vidhu Vincent
Genre
drama film, historical film
Country
India
Runtime
1h 26m
Rating
7.0 of 10 from 1 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A film about a young woman whose father works as a manual scavenger in Kerala. It shows the harsh realities and social stigma her family faces because of this caste-based occupation.

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What happens

Manhole is a 2016 Indian Malayalam-language film directed by Vidhu Vincent, depicting the life and struggles of a manual scavenger's daughter. The film was adjudged the Best Film of the year 2016 by the jury for the Kerala State Film Awards 2016 and the director of the film was selected as the Best Director of the year 2016. This made Vidhu Vincent the first woman to win the Best Director Award in the history of Kerala State Film Awards since its inception in 1969. According to jury chairman Apurba Kishore Bir, Manhole was the unanimous choice among the jury members for convincingly bringing the plight of the marginalised on screen. The film was also chosen as one of the only two Malayalam films in the competition category of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) 2016. This has made Vidhu Vincent the first woman director to enter the competition section in the twenty-year history of IFFK. Manhole is the first feature film directed by Vidhu Vincent. The film also grabbed the FIPRESCI : Best Malayalam Film Award during the IFFK 2016. The film was selected for the award "for the raw reality with which the film sheds light on the persistent inhumanity of manual scavengers in India, despite its being legally banned, in a cinematically eloquent manner." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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