Marathi movie 'Vihir' to compete at Berlin Film Festival

"The movie would be screened at Berlin on February 14, 15, 16 and 17," movie's writer-actor Girish Kulkarni said, adding the first show would be a red-carpet one.

'Vihir' (A Well) is the only second Marathi movie to be screened at Berlin after Jabbar Patel's 'Samana' featured in the festival 35 years ago.

Coincidentally, both 'Samana' and 'Vihir' have veteran actor Dr Mohan Agashe in its cast.
"'Vihir' is competing with around 15 movies in the 'Generation Section' of the festival for a Crystal Bear," Girish said.

'Generation Section' is sub-divided into two sections on the basis of age groups. While the first section features movies dealing with children in the age group of 6-14 years, the other is for 14-21 age group. 'Vihir' is categorised in the latter, Girish added.

The movie would be released on March 5 here.
Besides Berlin, the movie would also be screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2010- IFFR.
'Vihir' is a tale of a teenager dealing with the sudden death of his elder cousin and his journey to find out answers to questions about life and death.

Based on a true incident, film has a universal appeal which is its Unique Selling Point (USP), the director of the film Umesh Kulkarni said.
"I think more the subject is deep-rooted in your culture, the more universal appeal it has," Umesh said.

"Therefore, it is being featured in so many international film festivals," he said adding after all emotions are the same everywhere.
Umesh has earlier directed 'Valu', which too was well-received by audiences and critics alike.
The cast and crew comprising Umesh, Dr Mohan Agashe, Sulbha Deshpande, Girish Kulkarni, Amruta Subash, Madan Deodhar, Parna Pethe, Aalok Rajwade, and Sharvi Kulkarni would all be present in Berlin on February 11 and 12 for the movie screening.
The movie has been produced by AB Corp Ltd and is being distributed by PVR Films.