'Pinki Elli?' only Kannada film to enter Indian Panorama at IFFI

23 feature films, including Govond Nihalani's Up Up & Up, and 20 non-feature fims in Indian Panorama section

Twenty-three feature films, including Kannada movie Pinki Elli? and Govond Nihalani's Up Up & Up, and 20 non-feature films were chosen as Indian Panorama films in the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa to be held next month.

The opening feature film of Indian Panorama 2020 in the festival that will be held between January 16 and 24 will be Saand Ki Aandhi (Hindi) directed by Tushar Hiranandani. The feature films were chosen by a 13-member jury headed by filmmaker John Mathew Matthan.

Pinki Elli? is the only Kannada film chosen for the Indian Panorama, while Malayalam has topped the list with five films -- Anwar Rasheed's Trance, Pradeep Kalipurayath's Safe, Nissam Basheer's Kettiyolaanu Ente Malakha, Siddk Paravoor's Tahhira and Muhammed Musthafa's Kappela.

Prithvi Konanur's Pinki Elli? is a 1:47 hour thriller in which a young mother returns home to discover her daughter and caretaker missing, which leads to a frantic day that forces the stakeholders to deal with their past, present and future. Akshatha Pandavapura, Gunjalamma and Deepak Subramanya are in the lead cast.

Vetri Maaran's Dhanush-starrer Asuran and Ganesh Vinayakan's Thaen were selected from Tamil while from Marathi, Vaibhav Khisti and Suhrud Godbole's June, Shashank Udapurkar's Prawaas and Mangesh Joshi's Karkhanisanchi Waari were chosen.

Besides Saand Ki Aandhi, Nitesh Tiwary's Chhichhore, one of the last films of Sushant Singh Rajput who died by suicide earlier this year, and Durba Sahay's Aavartan were the films chosen from Hindi. Vijeesh Mani's Namo, which is based on the mythological character Kuchela, is the only Sanskrit film chosen in Indian Panorama section.

The other films are Bridge (Assamese), Avijatrik and Brahma Jane Gopon Kommoti (Bengali), A Dog And His Man (Chhattisgarhi), Eigi Kona (Manipuri), Kalira Atita (Odiya) and Gatham (Telugu).

Six each of the 20 non-feature films chosen for screening in Indian Panorama are in English and Hindi while three are from Marathi. Gujarati non-feature Paanchika directed by Ankit Kothari will be the opening non-feature film in the Panorama section.

Malayalam filmmaker Blessy's 100 Years Of Chrysotom-A Biographical Film, Ramesh Sharma's Ahimsa-Gandhi: The Power Of The Powerless, Sohini Dasgupta's Drama Queen, Sreedhar BS' In Our World, Vaishali Vasant Kendale's Investing Life, and Utpal Kalal's The 14th February & Beyond (all English), Prithvirag Das Gupta's Green Blackberries (Nepali) and Maibam Amarjeet Singh's Highways of Life (Manipuri) are among the non-feature films chosen for the Panorama.

Besides Paanchika, Ashmita Guha Neogi's Catdog, Farha Khatun's Holy Rights, Shoorveer Tyagi's Jadoo, Pramati Anand's Jhaat Aayi Basant, Kamakhya Narayan Singh's Justice Delayed But Delivered, and Pratik Gupta's Shantabai were the non-feature films from Hindi which will be screened as part of Indian Panorama.

The other non-features chosen for the Panorama section are Raj Pritam More's Khisa, Himanshu Singh's Pandhara Chivda and Onkar Diwadkar's Still Alive (Marathi), Sharan Venugopal's Oru Paathiraa Swapnam Pole (Malayalam), and Bimal Poddar's Radha (Bengali).