KD Engira Karuppudurai, a Tamil film directed by Madhumita Sundararaman under Saregama’s production wing Yoodlee Films, has bagged the Jury Award at the 3rd Singapore South Asian International Film Festival. Held between 30 August and 7 September 2019, the jury consisted of several prominent filmmakers from around the world, including India’s Rajiv Menon and Suhasini Maniratnam.
Madhumita Sundararaman, who is known for films like Vallamai Tharayo (which won Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Family Film), Kola Kolaya Mundhirika and Moone Moonu Varthai, has reportedly taken on a lively yet emotional storyline for this film. It is about a bed-ridden old man who wakes up from coma and escapes when he comes to know that his family is planning to euthanise him. He befriends a cheerful eight-year-old and embarks on a journey with him, fulfilling all the dreams on his bucket list. While the boy is an orphan yearning for love, the old man seeks solitude from a disloyal family.
Heartiest congratulations to the entire team of ‘KD’ for winning the prestigious JURY AWARD at the 3rd edition of Sg.Saiff 2019!#SgSAIFF2019 #SAFM #southasianfilms #singapore #SouthAsianCinema #Masterclass #GalaClosing pic.twitter.com/anP3leQuz0
— Sg Saiff (@sgsaiff) September 9, 2019
KD Engira Karuppudurai stars Mu. Ramasamy ayya and debut actor Nagavishal in the lead, along with Yog Japee, Badava Gopi, Gabrella Sellus and Guna in significant roles. Meyyendiran Kempuraj has handled the camera, Karthikeya Murthy has composed music with Vijay Venkataramanan on the edit.
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“KD has been a fantastic journey for all of us so far. As someone who was born in India but raised abroad, I have always been perceived as an urban filmmaker, and unconsciously chosen to tell urban stories. However, KD is different. KD is set in Virudhunagar and Thenkasi and is a rural coming-of-age story between an 80-year-old man and an 8-year-old boy. At the festival, I had the opportunity to see many good films, including Oththa Seruppu, Veyilmarangal, Widow of Silence, etc, but to realize that KD won amongst such wonderful films, makes the win even sweeter. Usually, when a film wins at festivals, the audience immediately brand it as an award film/art film, so I want to make it very clear, that KD isn’t just an award film. It is an entertaining film, which will leave you with a lot of laughter, a bit of tears and an overall smile when you go home,” Madhumitha said in a statement.
Madhumitha won the ‘Best Director’ award at the UK Asian Film Festival, London, and at the Indian Film Festival of Cincinnati while debut actor Nagavishal won the ‘Best Unorthodox Roleplay’ Award at the Caleidoscope Indian Film Festival, Boston. The film was nominated for ‘Best Actor’ and ‘Best Child Actor’ at the New York Indian Film Festival and ‘Best Actor’ and ‘Best Film’ at the Singapore South Asian International Film Festival.
The film was also officially selected for The Tasveer South Asian Film Festival, Asian American International Film Festival, The Ottawa Indian Film Festival Awards and the 10th Jagran Film Festival where it was a nominee in multiple categories.
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Madhumitha also said: “I did my under graduation in Singapore, and not many people know this, but I had an accident during my college, and one of my professors challenged me and said that I could not complete the year. I completed the year with excellence and came back years later to win this award. I invited him to the screening and he had tears in his eyes, and told me how much he loved the film. I realised that his challenge was meant to push me to do better.”
The movie has been doing the rounds of the film festival circuit and is slated to release in theatres this November. Madhumitha’s short film Abstract Identity won the BBC Award in the ‘Best in the World’ category. She did a course in direction at the New York Film Academy and briefly worked on Pirates of the Caribbean 3.