S Durga


Sexy Durga is a 2017 Indian Malayalam-language indie drama film directed by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan. The film is about the religious divide in the society of Kerala and its effect on marriage between two people from two different religious backgrounds.
It has won the Hivos Tiger Award at the 2017 International Film Festival Rotterdam, and the Golden Apricot at Armenia's Yerevan International Film Festival in the category International Feature Competition, 2017. It is the only Indian film to win that title.

Synopsis

Durga, a north Indian migrant and a Keralite youth named Kabeer are running away on a midnight. They are waiting for a transport to the nearest railway station to catch a train to a distant place. Two small time gangsters, transporting arms, offer assistance to the couple. The hapless "Durga" encounters a cross section of the society through the rest of the night.
Parallel to the journey of Durga, another mysterious event intercuts in the film. In a Kerala village, devotees perform 'Garudan Thookkam, a ritual art form submitted as a reward for the problems solved in the abode of Goddess Kali, who represents Goddess Durga's personified wrath & embodied fury.

Cast

Since the first screening as a work in progress film in the NFDC film Bazaar in Goa, the film has received good reviews from the viewers. Critic Gautaman Bhaskaran wrote in Hindustan Times "that was arguably one of the finest movies that this writer saw here". Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion South wrote "Sasidharan likes games. In S Durga, the games are metaphorical, about the way we “toy” with others. But in both films, these games start out as “fun”, and end up revealing the ugliness inside the players, who are but a microcosm of a patriarchal society. These are, essentially, power games, with the strong preying on the weak. The strength comes from privilege. The weakness rises from these very factors, but from the other end of the spectrum."

Awards

The film was screened at the following Film festivals: