"Liar's Dice" directed by Geethu Mohandas is selected as India's entry to the Academy Awards foreign language category. The decision was announced by Film Federation of India on Tuesday.
This year there were over 30 films in contention including Kangana Ranaut's "Queen" (Hindi) directed by Vikas Bhal, Riteish Deshmukh's "Yellow" (Marathi) directed by Mahesh Limaye and Srijith Mukherji's "Jathishwar" (Bengali) for Oscar ticket.
The story of the film revolves around a young woman Kamala (Geetanjali Thapa) who lives with her daughter Manya (Manya Gupta) in a small village, Chitkul in Indo-Tibetan Border in Himachal Pradesh. They take a journey from their village to New Delhi, in search of her husband who took a distant construction job. On their journey, they meet Nawazuddin (Nawazudin Siddiqui), an army deserter. He assists the young woman and her daughter in their journey. The film, touted as an anthropological movie, has already won many awards and accolades at many film festivals.
Geethu Mohandas, the director of the film, is a popular Malayalam actress. She had earlier directed short film "Kelkunnundo" (2009), which was also critically well-acclaimed. The short film had received "The Golden Lamp Tree" Award at International Film Festival of India in Goa. It was also included in Rotterdam Film Festival and Mumbai International Film Festival.
Geethu Mohandas initially had troubles getting fund for producing "Liar's Dice" as it was had unusual storyline with less popular actors. She later managed to get a project development grand of €10,000 from International Film Festival Rotterdam's Hubert Bal's Fund. The film was co-produced by Jar Pictures owned by Geethu Mohandas and her husband and cinematographer Rajeev Ravi.
After screening at various film festivals, the film won many critical acclaims including Special Jury award at the 18th Sofia International Film Festival and 61st National film awards for Geetanjali Thapa (Best Actress) and Rajeev Ravi (Best Cinematographer).
