Critically acclaimed film Jalpari – The Desert Mermaid has been submitted as a direct entry for Academy Awards. Producer Sushilkumar Agrawal, CMD Ultra Distributors said, “Total 17 films were competing in India to be sent as India’s official entry for the foreign film category. Every film had a potential in some or the other way to compete for the Oscars but unfortunately only one film can go as an official entry from India. The original story and concept is the USP of our film. The blazing subject, the treatment of the film and the powerful performances has the potential to compete to the Oscars. So we decided to submit our film as a direct entry for the Academy Awards.”
Ultra has submitted the film to the Academy of Motion Pictures and their team will visit US for exhibition and the promotion of the film.
Recently the film received the prestigious Audience Choice Award in Minsk International Film Festival in Belarus and was selected as an official entry for International Film Festival in Montreal which will take place in March 2013. It is expected to participate in many other international film festivals. The film also won MIP Junior Kids Jury Award at Cannes in Oct 2012.
Jalpari is directed by Nila Madhab Panda, director of award winning ‘I Am Kalam’. The film deals with the predicaments that a girl child encounters in rural India and also addresses the divide between rural and urban India. The film depicts India’s national shame ‘female feticide’ in a lighter way, without getting preachy about the whole thing.
On the whole, Jalpari is a motivating and thought-provoking movie that relies on the muscle of its powerful storytelling and performances to communicate a blazing subject matter. Savita Singh’s seamless cinematography and Apurva Asrani’s impeccable editing are amongst the other strengths of this motion picture.
Jalpari was very well appreciated and acclaimed by the critics when it was released in India in September 2012.
India Post News Service
