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From flower hawker to film auteur: India's new cinematic sensation
P.S. Vinothraj's low-budget debut movie Koozhangal has been selected as India's entry to the international feature film category at next year's Oscars.
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In this picture taken on November 27, 2021, Tamil film director P.S. Vinothraj poses during the 52nd International Film Festival of India in Panaji. (AFP/-)
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t a bustling Indian market, a child labourer carrying bags of flowers was captivated by cameramen riding huge cranes during film shoots. Two decades later the boy has become his country's latest cinematic sensation.
P.S. Vinothraj's low-budget debut movie Koozhangal -- internationally known by its translated title Pebbles -- has been selected as India's entry to the international feature film category at next year's Oscars.
The 32-year-old drew from his family's battle with poverty and his sister's experience of marital abuse to tell the story of an alcoholic father and his young son walking through a barren, unforgiving landscape in his home state of Tamil Nadu.
"My real-life experience gave me toughness and has helped in this film. That kind of life has become the film," Vinothraj told AFP.
The result is an observational drama Indian critics have described as a "masterpiece" and a "sensational debut... that is evocative, visceral and powerful".
It won the Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, with the jury saying the "seemingly simple and humble" effort was a "lesson in pure cinema".
Vinothraj joins an emerging movement of Tamil directors -- many from disadvantaged backgrounds like his own -- addressing societal inequities through the voices and lives of everyday people.
