PIFF 2022: Godavari, Medium Spicy, Ekada Kaay Zala to be screened in Marathi Competition

The twentieth edition of the Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) is set to open on 3 March with the Kurdish-Arabic film Neighbours (2021) by Mano Khalil.

Set in the early 1980s in a little village on the Syria-Turkey border, the film tells the story of a six-year-old who sees how his world is changed radically by nationalism after joining school.

The satirical film is based on director Mano Khalil's personal experiences.

Six films of different genres have been selected in the Marathi Competition section this year. The selection offers a good mix of the work of newcomers as well as experienced filmmakers.

Nikhil Mahajan's Godavari (2022), which bagged the Silver Peacock for Best Actor and the Special Jury Prize for Direction at the 52nd International Film Festival of India in Goa last year is part of the selection.

The line-up includes Saleel Kulkarni's Ekada Kaay Zala, which tells the story of a boy who shares an inseparable bond with his father but shuts himself off from everyone, including the father, after an unexpected event.

Mohit Takalkar's Medium Spicy, starring Lalit Prabhakar, Sai Tamhankar and Parna Pethe, which is doing the rounds of film festivals, is also part of the Marathi Competition.

Medium Spicy revolves around 30-something Nissim, who works as a chef at a five-star hotel. He is caught between two potent choices for a relationship and shares a unique equation with each of them.

Other Marathi films in the category are Shankar Arjunn Dhotre's Potra, Ananth Mahadevan's Aata Vel Zaali, and Mehul Agaja's Niwaas.

The festival will also celebrate the birth centenary of the late classical musician and Bharat Ratna awardee Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, filmmaker Satyajit Ray and poet Sahir Ludhianvi.

The 20th edition of PIFF is being organized by the Pune Film Foundation and the government of Maharashtra.