Actor-turned-director Geetu Mohandas’ second feature Moothon will open the 21st edition of the JIO MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, which is set to run from 17th-24th of October. The notification was posted on the social media page of the festival organisers. “Geetu Mohandas’ gritty and poignant Moothon will open our 21st edition,” informed the MAMI team.
Moothon stars Nivin Pauly, Shobita Dhulipala (Raman Raghav 2.0), Shashank Arora (Titli), and Roshan Mathew (Thottappan).Geetu directed the film from her own screenplay with Hindi dialogues contributed by writer-director Anurag Kashyap (Black Friday, Gangs of Wasseypur). Interestingly, Kashyap has cast Roshan Mathew as the lead in his next film after being impressed by his performance in Moothon.
JAR Pictures, which also produced Geetu’s directorial debut Liar’s Dice, is producing jointly with Anurag Kashyap. Moothon is expected to be released theatrically after it completes the rounds at the festival circuit.
Cinematographer Rajeev Ravi, who is Geetu’s husband, has shot the film. The veteran is known for handling the camera for many of Kashyap’s films including Dev.D and Mukkabaaz. Rajeev had also shot Liar’s Dice, starring Geetanjali Thapa and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. The film, released in 2014, fetched Rajeev his first National award. Geetanjali won the National award for Best Actress.
Liar’s Dice also had the privilege of being screened at the 15th Mumbai Film Festival in addition to the Sundance Film Festival and International Film Festival of Rotterdam. It must be also noted that it was India’s official entry for Best Foreign Film at the 87th Academy Awards.
Meanwhile, Nivin Pauly is working in Rajeev’s next directorial, Thuramukham, which also stars Indrajith Sukumaran, Biju Menon, Arjun Ashokan, Nimisha Sajayan, Poornima Indrajith, and Manikandan Achari.