Two movies by director Don Palathara by the names 1956, Central Travancore and Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam have been selected to the 25th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). They will be screened in the Kaleidoscope and Malayalam Cinema Today categories, respectively. It doesn’t happen very often that two movies by the same director gets picked for a film festival in the very same year.
After the world premiere of 1956, Central Travancore at 42nd Moscow International Film Festival and a subsequent screening at the Indie India fest at Spain, IFFK will be the movie’s debut screening venue in India. However, Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam will have its world premiere at the festival in February.
Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam, starring Rima Kallingal and Jitin Puthenchery is a relationship drama, filmed as a 85-minute single shot and set exclusively in a car. While Shijo K George produced the movie under the banner Bee Cave movie, Saji Babu has done the cinematography.1956, Central Travancore tells the story of a gaur hunting adventure, taken on by a group of migrant farmers in Idukki, before the land reforms. The movie is produced by Abhilash S Kumar under the banner of Art Beat Studios. In this black and white flick featuring Jain Andrews and Assif Yogi in the main roles, Alex Joseph and Jayesh Mohan assume the roles of the cinematographer and the associate camera man, respectively. A few crew members who have worked for both the movies: Basil CJ, background music; Dan Jose, Sound mixing; Arun Varma, Sound editing; Sherin Catherine, Lyrics; Liju Prabhakar; Colouring; and, Dileep Das, Publicity designs. Live sound was recorded by Adarsh Joseph Palamattom in Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam and Sandeep Kurissery and Jiji Joseph in 1956 Central Travancore.
