Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

‘Kaval’ bags children’s film awards

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ‘Kaval,’ a 20-minute film directed by Praveen Das of Government Higher Secondary School, Thrissilery, has bagged the award for the best film in the higher secondary section at the State Children’s Educational Film Festival which concluded here on Wednesday.

Mr. Das also won the coveted P. Ramadas Award for the best director. P. Ramdas is the director and producer of ‘Newspaper Boy,’ the first neo-realistic Malayalam film in Malayalam. The award winning film is an adaptation of a short story for Class X students written by P. Valsala.

A total of 78 films, including 41 directed by children, vied for honours at the festival organised by the State Institute for Educational Technology. Prizes were given in various categories.

Beena Paul, who served as the chairperson of the five-member jury, said that the films made by children reflected “a great amount of innocence and closeness to reality.” Judging the films was an eye-opening experience, she told the audience comprising students and teachers from various parts of the State.

Giving away the awards, Speaker K. Radhakrishnan suggested that the Education Department should explore the possibility of introducing a grading system for films on the likes of school examinations instead of identifying the best actor and actress. “Choosing the best actor and actress can lead to unhealthy competition among children,” Mr. Radhakrishnan said.

The Speaker was of the view that the department should consider teaching the technical aspects of filmmaking to students at a very young age.

Minister for Education and Culture M.A. Baby, who presided over the function, said that the government hoped to conduct the film festival on national-level from next year. “For this we need the assistance from the Centre,” Mr. Baby said. The valedictory function was also attended by A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish, Director, Public Instruction, and Babu Sebastian, Director, S.I.ET.

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