Nithin Lukose’s Malayalam movie Paka to premiere at Toronto International Film Fest

Debutant filmmaker Nithin Lukose’s movie Paka (River of Blood) is all set to premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2021. The Malayalam-language movie has been selected for the Discovery section, which portrays director’s first or second feature films worldwide. 

Paka narrates the tale of a river that swells with the blood of two quarrelling families and a young couple who tries to mend this with their love. The movie is set in Wayanad, Kerala. Director Nithin Lukose, who is a former student of Pune Film Institute, is also a sound designer, who has handled sound in over 25 films, including Hollywood projects. Paka, according to him, was his dream project, which is about his native place Wayanad. He said that the movie is a manifestation of fascinating stories and myths narrated by his grandmother to him when he was young.

The movie is produced by filmmakers Anurag Kashyap and Raj Rachakonda. Kashyap had earlier hailed the quality of movies coming out of Malayalam cinema, when he was on board during the post-production stage of the movie. Rachakonda said that he was impressed by Lukose’s sound work in the 2019 Telugu movie Mallesham.

Paka has already won the best WIP project in the Work-in-Progress Lab of NFDC Film Bazaar 2020. The cast of the movie includes Basil Paulose, Vinitha Koshy, Jose Kizhakkan, Athul John, Nithin George and Joseph Manickal. 

The 47th Toronto International Film Festival is said to be held in a hybrid format this year, which will have both in-person and digital screenings. The fest is scheduled from September 9 to 18 this year.