Radhakrishnan Parthiban’s The Shadow of the Night at Marche du Film – Festival de Cannes 2022
The Shadow of the Night (Iravin Nizhal) is hailed as one of the stand out films from India unveiled in the Marche du Film–Festival de Cannes. The 1h40 thriller distributed by Night ED Films is at the Film Market during the Cannes Film Festival 2022.
Parthiban is a well respected and acclaimed director in India winning 2 National Film Awards, the equivalent of the French Césars, in 1989 and 1999, respectively for Pudhiya Paadhai and Housefull.
Radhakrishnan Parthiban Road to Cannes Film Festival 2022
In 2019, he won the Special Jury Prize of the National Film Award for his film: OTHA SERUPU SIZE 7. For the film, Parthiban wrote, directed and self-produced the film, in which he was the only actor. Building on this success is a Tamil version (southern India), with an acclaimed famous Bollywood star that is currently in production.
With The Shadow of the Night, his latest film, Parthiban realizes another old dream of more than 30 years: to shoot an entire film, in non-linear narration, and in a single sequence shot. It took rehearsals and training for 90 days, with a team of 350 people, to reach the final sequence plan. With the intervention of children and animals in the script, improvisation was a key element in this adventure. This sequence plan also required the construction of 50 sets on a plot of more than 25 hectares.
When asked about his decision to cast himself in the lead role in the film that he directs, Parthiban said that it eases matters for him.
“It is difficult to find actors who can devote months at a stretch of unwavering commitment to a film of mine.”
Parthiban left nothing to chance and surrounded himself, for this film, with 3 prestigious Oscar winners:
- A.R. RAHMAN (2 OSCARS for Slumdog Millionnaire) at the helm of the soundtrack of the film
- COTTALANGO LEON (Scientific and technical OSCAR for his work at SONY PICTURES) in charge of special effects
- CRAIG MANN (OSCAR for best sound for WHIPLASH) as Sound Designer
In Cannes, Parthiban was the talk of the festival at the India Pavilion in the International Village at the 75th Cannes Film Festival on Sunday. His 16th directorial outing won him instant admirers and curious onlookers.
Legendary musician AR Rahman, who scored the music for Iravin Nizhal, expressed his excitement about the project at the screening of the film. “I have composed music for countless movies in South and North India, but I have never worked on film quite like this one. Iravin Nizhal has no precedent,” he said.
Parthiban is in Cannes with his filmmaker-daughter Keerthana Parthiban Akkineni who is alsoa producer on the film.
Cultured Focus Magazine had the pleasure of attending the press conference for Parthiban’s Shadow of the Night at Cannes Film Festival 2022. See some of the trailer and highlights below.
Official Trailer
About: Director Radhakrishnan Parthiban at Cannes Film Festival 2022
R. Parthiban is an Indian actor and filmmaker who works mainly in Tamil cinema. He has directed 14 films, produced 12 films and acted in more than 60 films. He started his career as assistant director for K. Bhagyaraj in 1984 and the duo worked in over 20 films from 1984 to 1991.
Parthiban is known for having directed critically acclaimed films such as Pudhiya Paadhai (1989) and Housefull (1999) won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil. He also won National Film Award – Special Jury Award in Otha Seruppu Size 7 (2019).
His performances as actor are in successful films such as Bharathi Kannamma (1997), Nee Varuvai Ena (1999), Vetri Kodi Kattu (2000), Azhagi (2002), Aayirathil Oruvan (2010), Melvilasom (2011) and Otha Seruppu Size 7 (2019).
On 25 December 2018, he was appointed as the new Vice President of the Tamil Film Producers Council replacing Gautham Vasudev Menon and Prakash Raj who were jointly holding the position until 24 December 2018.
He also wins three awards at the 2020 Toronto Tamil Film Festival, which includes the Jury Award for Best Feature Film, Jury Award for Best Feature Film Director and Best Solo Act Award.[25] Parthiban has been a part of multi-starrers as well, including Ponmagal Vandhal (2020), Tughlaq Durbar (2021), Yutha Satham (2022) and Ponniyin Selvan (2022).