Legendary cinematographer and filmmaker Balu Mahendra was all praise for Prasanth Kanathur after watching his short film, Aval. “It’s one of the finest short films I have seen in recent times,” said Balu Mahendra and added that he would speak to a TV channel to find space for this 23-minute-long short film on airtime. A journalist with Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi, this is Prasanth’s fourth short film. His earlier films are Janmam (Birth), Nashtavarnagal (Missing Colours) and Block.
Aval was screened at the South Indian Film Chamber recently. The short film on female infanticide exposes the darker side of our society and throws light on the existence of this ghastly practice in remote Indian villages even today. Prasanth said that we could still find such cases in several rural villages of Tamil Nadu. “As a journalist I did a story on female infanticide and the idea of making it into a short film struck me. That’s how Aval happened. This film expresses my point-of-view on this issue and short films such as these can serve as a message board against social evils,” Prasanth said.
The story takes place in Usilampatti village, Madurai, where a new-born baby girl is killed by her grandmother, and the mother can only watch helplessly and cry out loud.
Balu Mahendra lauded the efforts taken by the filmmaker and his crew, especially cinematographer Pratap Nair. Produced by CR Creations’ C Ramachandra, journalist V H Nishad has handled the story and screenplay for Aval.