STAINS
30 MINS - ENGLISH - MALAYALAM - HINDI
Writer - Director - Editor
Stains’ is a Short Fiction Film based on Manjula Padmanabhan's short story of the same name. The film revolves around a couple from diverse cultural backgrounds, who are spending a weekend with the man’s mother for Onam. During the visit, the woman starts menstruating and stains her bedsheets. Her boyfriend's mother’s extreme reaction to the event, his failure to stand up for her and in turn expecting her to adjust, results in a fraught environment. This conflict builds through the course of the visit, as she examines her own relationship with her blood and pain, while simultaneously examining her romantic relationship.
The film is an attempt to examine the portrayal of menstrual blood through the eyes of the people who bleed, the people who assign discriminatory connotations to this blood and in turn the medium of film and how it is used to represent the blood and the relationships that surround it. It also looks at an urban relationship that struggles to exist in the tussle between individuality and tradition where a woman attempts to define and reclaim her autonomy.
List of Film Festival Screenings/Awards
Clapstick - 2019 - Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute - SRFTI, Kolkata (31st Jan - 2nd Feb 2019)
Student Category (Fiction) at DMCS National Short Film Festival 2019 - NFAI, Pune (22nd & 23rd of February 2019)
AWARD: Best Editing
Best Student Film (March-April) - Calcutta International Cult Film Festival - April 2019
Student Cinema category - 14th Habitat Film Festival 2019 - IHC, Delhi (17th - 26th May 2019)
FEFKA Directors' Union Short Film Fest - Kerala
AWARDS: Best Director, Best Female Artist & Best Music Director
Short Fiction (Competition) category - 13th SiGNS FESTIVAL - Sahitya Academy Hall, Thrissur (26-30th September 2019)
AWARD: Best Malayalam Short Feature
2nd Vintage International Film Festival 2019, India - Shahu Smarak Bhavan, Dadara Chowk, Kolhapur (5th October 2019)
AWARDS: Best National Film, Best Director, Best Editing
Fiction - 6th Goa Short Film Festival 2019 - 2nd November 2019
Student Film - 7th Woodpecker International Film Festival 2019 - Siri Fort Auditorium, New Delhi (29th November 2019)
AWARD: Best Student Film
Short Film Category - 4th International Short Film Festival Pune India 2019 - 16th December 2019
Madhya Pradesh Mahila Manch – The Matinee Show in association with IAWRT - Bhopal
Darbhanga International Film Festival 2020
AWARDS: Best Story - National Category
Women’s International Film Festival of Kerala – Kerala State Chalachitra Academy Federation of Film Societies Keralam - Kozhikode
16th IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival – New Delhi 7th March 2020
Federation of Film Societies of India Keralam – Online Film Festival 29th July 2020
Nirvana Film Festival 2020 - Patna - 5th October 2020
22nd Madurai Film Festival 2020 - December 2020
Shades International Short Film Festival December 2020
AWARD: Best Actor
KIFFI JAIPUR - (Kaaryat International Film Festival of India, JAIPUR) December 2020
Chinh Youth Film Festival January 2021 - New Delhi
AWARD: Chinh Gold - Film Upto 30 Minutes
13th Jaipur International Film Festival-JIFF 2021 - January 2021 - Jaipur
9th Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival - March 2021
Suchitra Film Society 50th Anniversary Screenings - September 2021 - Bengaluru
11th Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF) - September 2021
11th Social Justice Film Festival 2022, Chennai - April 2022