Malayalam films Moothon, Jallikattu to premiere at Toronto International Film Festival

A day after being named as the opening film at the 21st Mumbai Film Festival, Geetu Mohandas's Moothon will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in the special presentation section. Joining Geetu will be filmmaker Lijo Jose Pellissery as his next feature, Jallikattu, will make its world premiere in the contemporary world cinema section, along with another Indian film, Gitanjali Rao's Bombay Rose.

Shonali Bose's The Sky Is Pink (2019), starring Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar and Zaira Wasim, has already been named as a gala presentation at the Canadian festival. A total of four Indian films will be screened at the upcoming festival.

A Kerala State Film award-winner for his previous film, Ee.Ma.Yau (2018), Pellissery's Jallikattu is set his hometown of Chalakudy where "a buffalo excapes and causes a frenzy of ecstatic violence," according to the TIFF website.

Jallikattu, based on S Hareesh's short story Maoist, stars Antony Varghese, Chemban Vinod Jose, and Sabumon Abdusamad. Cinematographer Gireesh Gangadharan and music composer Prasanth Pilla who worked with Pellissery on the cult film, Angamaly Diaries (2017) reunite with him for this project as well.  

Geetu Mohandas's second feature after Liar's Dice (2016), Moothon is known by its English title, The Elder One, at TIFF. Starring Nivin Pauly, Sobhita Dhulipala, Shashank Arora, Dileesh Pothan, Roshan Mathew and Melissa Raju Thomas as Amina, the Malayalam follows a teenager in search of his older brother in Mumbai. The film has been co-produced by Anurag Kashyap and features music by Sneha Khanwalkar and Govind Menon.

The Toronto International Film Festival will be held from 5-15 September.