Two women-centric Kannada films — Nathicharami by national award-winning filmmaker Mansore and Bale Kempa by Ere Gowda — have made their entry into the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI) festival.
While N athicharami has been selected in the ‘India Stories’ section and will compete in the Oxfam India competition for best film on gender equality, Bale Kempa is competing with nine films in the ‘India Gold’ competition section for feature films.
Nathicharami is the second venture of Manjunatha Somakeshava Reddy, popularly known as Mansore. His debut venture Harivu has secured a national film award under the Best Regional Film category, besides the Karnataka State Film Award under the Best Film and Best Director categories.
Nathicharami (a reference to a vow taken during the Hindu marriage) looks at what marital promises mean in the changing times. “I have tried to re-read these values in different layers through two characters,” said Mansore.
Bale Kempa , début venture of Ere Gowda, which secured the prestigious International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) award at the 47th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) at the beginning of the year, is one of the major attractions of the MAMI film festival. Incidentally, Bale Kempa was the only Indian film in the competition at IFFR under the Bright Future section. Bale Kempa had also received the Work-in-Progress Lab-2017 Award at the National Film Development Corporation Film Bazaar at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) held in Goa.
A narrative of 108 minutes, the film has its roots in the rural milieu and revolves around Kempanna, a bangle seller who travels across the countryside and sells beauty products, but has little time for his wife Soubhagya.
“It is a great opportunity for a self-made filmmaker to compete with films of international standard at MAMI,” said Ere Gowda.
