The first thing Tamil filmmaker P.S. Vinothraj remembered when he walked in with his crew to the packed Tagore Theatre here on Saturday for the screening of his film Koozhangal (Pebbles) in the International Competition category at the 26th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) was his own memories of jostling with the crowd years ago to get into the festival.
Koozhangal, which has won accolades at most of the festivals it has been screened in and was India's official entry at the Oscars this year, expectedly was the biggest draw at IFFK on the second day of the festival.
Alongside Vinothraj was his elder sister, whose experiences gave him the idea for the film. Her husband had thrown her out of her house with their baby, forcing her to walk several kilometres at night through the arid, punishing landscape to get back to her own house.
