The 46th edition of the reputed Toronto International Film Festival 2021 (TIFF) is underway from 9th September 2021 to 18th September 2021 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The festival has been in the news for all good reasons.
For instance, Denis Villeneuve’s highly anticipated epic science fiction movie ‘Dune’ was planned for its Imax premiere at TIFF. Besides, ‘Training Day’ director Antoine Fuqua’s upcoming thriller ‘The Guilty’ starring Jake Gyllenhaal was also announced to be screened under the festival’s ‘Special Presentations’ segment. Some other premium offerings include ‘Spencer’, ‘Belfast’, ‘The Power of the Dog’, and ‘Last Night in Soho’, to name a few.
Making its way amongst these high-profile international titles is a Malayalam language Indian film titled ‘River of Blood’ aka ‘Paka’ helmed by sound designer turned filmmaker Nithin Lukose in his directorial debut. ‘River of Blood’ was slated to have its world premiere today (1:30 AM IST) at TIFF 2021 film festival’s ‘Discovery’ segment besides its scheduled in-person screening tomorrow (3:30 AM IST). The film has been produced by maverick Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap along with Raj Rachakonda.
Set in North Kerela, ‘River of Blood’ is the story of two star-crossed lovers namely Johnny (Basil Paulose) and Anna (Vinitha Koshy) amidst the bloody backdrop of a long-standing, fierce rivalry between their families. Will the young couple’s love overcome the hateful vengeance between their feuding families? The film’s title comes from the local river shared by the families, and which has witnessed their violent history.
The Malayalam film industry has been churning out some quality content especially in the year 2021. The impressive list includes the recently released ‘Home’, ‘Malik’, ‘Nayattu’, ‘Joji’, and ‘Drishyam 2’, to name a few. All these films are amongst the top-rated films on the coveted IMDb list. It remains to be seen whether ‘River of Blood’ aka ‘Paka’ will be able to join the aforementioned brilliant Malayalam titles.